Apple CEO's compensation rises slightly to $4.3M

The Associated Press | AP

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple CEO Timothy Cook received a compensation package valued at nearly $4.3 million this year, up slightly from 2012.

Cook's pay for fiscal 2013, which ended in September, consisted of $1.4 million in salary and a bonus of $2.8 million, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Cook's compensation also includes $52,721 in company contributions to his 401(k) account, life insurance premiums and a vacation cash-out.

The year's pay was relatively modest compared with 2011, when he took the company's helm. That year, Apple's board set him up with a sign-on grant of 1 million shares, and his total compensation amounted to $378 million. In 2012, Cook's compensation package was $4.2 million, according to the filing.

Apple itself faced some challenges in the fiscal year. It closed with a nearly 25% decline in market value, or about $160 billion. Still, it remains the world's most valued company as measured by market capitalization.

Apple's earnings have been shrinking along with its share of the smartphone and tablet market it reshaped with the 2007 release of the first iPhone and the 2010 introduction of the iPad.

Since then, the company has not released another breakthrough device in a new category. That's raised questions about Apple's ability to innovate after the death of its co-founder and chief visionary, Steve Jobs, two years ago.

Apple's fourth-quarter results, reported in October, marked the third consecutive quarter that the company's earnings had fallen compared with a year earlier.

Apple, whose annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for Feb. 28, also said in the filing that activist investor Carl Icahn plans a shareholder proposal that would commit the company to repurchasing at least $50 billion of its stock during fiscal 2014. The company is recommending that its shareholders vote against the proposal.