What you need to know
- Apple CEO Tim Cook is now worth over $1 billion.
- The calculation was done by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
- Cook's worth is made up mostly from equity awards while leading Apple.
Tim Cook is now worth over a billion dollars.
Reported by Bloomberg, Apple's share price rose about 5% last week, which has gotten the company extremely close to the record market value of $2 trillion and also thrust its CEO Tim Cook into the billionaire world.
Cook's net worth estimate is based on an analysis of regulatory filings and applying the market performance of a typical wealthy investor to his proceeds from share sales. Cook, 59, said in 2015 that he plans to give most of his fortune away and has already gifted million of dollars worth of Apple shares. His wealth could be lower if he's made other undisclosed charitable gifts.
Whereas other CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jeff Bezos of Amazon have achieved their wealth in owning huge shares of their companies, Cook grew his wealth through periodic equity awards from leading Apple to new heights.
He got a massive award of restricted shares on his first day as CEO. The equity has paid out in annual increments, with part of them contingent on Apple's stock outperforming at least two-thirds of firms in the S&P 500. Barring a sudden drop in Apple's stock price, Cook is poised to receive his ninth payout from the award, consisting of 560,000 shares, later this month.
Bloomberg calculated Cook's net worth based off of the current number of shares that the CEO owns of Apple stock as well as the value of previous sales of stock, dividends, and other compensation.
Around half of those will likely be withheld for taxes but the remainder should boost Cook's fortune by another $100 million. He currently owns 847,969 shares directly, or about 0.02% of Apple shares, worth around $375 million. Proceeds from previous share sales, dividends and other compensation add another $650 million to his net worth, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Apple stock rose 1.4% to $450.79 at 2:07 p.m. on Monday.
