Apple raises Tim Cook's pay rejects Icahn's buyback proposal

Apple CEO Tim Cook was paid 4.25 million dollars in 2013, the company reported Friday in a regulatory filing, according to dpa. The compensation was more or less the same as the 4.2 million Cook earned in 2012. But it represented a dramatic drop from the 510 million dollars worth of stock options that Cook was granted in 2011 when he took over the company. Cook's 2013 compensation could have been higher, but the board decided to dock some 10 per cent of the 72,000 shares that Cook was scheduled to receive to reflect the company's poor stock market performance. Cook's package did however include a 2.8 million dollar bonus to reflect the fact that the company met all its operational performance goals, the filing said. Apple's filing also revealed that activist shareholder Carl Icahn had tabled a motion for the company's annual general meeting on February 28 for Apple to increase its share buy back program to 50 billion dollars in 2014. The company already has a long-term share buyback program worth 100 billion dollars, and spent 23 billion dollars on it in 2013,according to the proxy filing. According to the board, there is no reason to increase the buyback commitment at a time when Apple's cash reserves may be needed to buy up other companies or develop new technologies. "The board believes that the company's management team and board are in the best position to determine what is in the best long-term interest of the company's business and recommends a vote AGAINST this proposal," the filing read.