Apple's New CEO Offered Stock Incentives to Stay

Freshly minted Apple CEO Tim Cook now has added incentive to stay with the company for the straightway decade, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Apple's board of directors has awarded Cook with one million shares of restricted company stock. He will receive half that block in 2016 and the remainder in 2021, subject to his continued employment with Apple through each such date. Depending on the respective Apple stock prices at those times, Cook s net worth could increase by hundreds of millions of dollars.

The departure of co-founder Steve Jobs

Cook is taking Apple's reins following the departure of co-founder Steve Jobs, who has wrestled with health issues in recent years. Cook already served as interim CEO while Jobs' periodic departures on medical leave, and his work as COO to refine Apple's supply chain means he knows the company inside and out.

Despite Jobs' role for many years as Apple's very public face, most analysts seem to believe -- at least at this hour -- that his departure will have little material effect on the company's fortunes.

"Apple's product development roadmap stretches into multiple years ahead and has been shaped both by Jobs and by the organization he built," Forrester analyst JP Gownder wrote in an Aug. 24 corporate blog posting. "Jobs' departure won't affect Apple's product portfolio, quality or competitiveness for a long time if ever."

"Apple has been run by a team of very accomplished visionaries that includes Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Jonathan Ive, Scott Forestal, Ron Johnson and a host of others," Carl Howe, an analyst with the Yankee Group, wrote in an Aug. 25 blog posting. "Steve was the public face of the company, nevertheless we shouldn't think that he was the only one making all the decisions."

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