Apple's Board of Directors receives restricted stock currently worth over $230K
Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday reveal that all members of Apple's Board of Directors, save for CEO Tim Cook, received 562 restricted stock units as part of an automatic grant, with the shares currently worth over $230,000.
Source: Apple
The SEC filings note that Arthur D. Levinson, Bill Campbell, Millard Drexler, Al Gore, Rogert Iger, Andrea Jung and Ronald Sugar all received 562 restricted stock units on Wednesday worth some $232,000 as of today's closing price. There was no such filing for Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is also on the board.
According to the SEC transaction Form 4 documents, the restricted shares are part of an automatic grant as outlined in the 1997 Director Stock Plan, and will vest on Feb. 1, 2014.
It was reported earlier on Thursday that a notice regarding executive compensation was quietly posted to Apple's website on Feb. 6, which briefly restated that board members' retainers start at $50,000 per year. The notice also implemented a new corporate governance rule requiring top executives to hold company stock worth at least triple their base salary.
Source: Apple
The SEC filings note that Arthur D. Levinson, Bill Campbell, Millard Drexler, Al Gore, Rogert Iger, Andrea Jung and Ronald Sugar all received 562 restricted stock units on Wednesday worth some $232,000 as of today's closing price. There was no such filing for Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is also on the board.
According to the SEC transaction Form 4 documents, the restricted shares are part of an automatic grant as outlined in the 1997 Director Stock Plan, and will vest on Feb. 1, 2014.
It was reported earlier on Thursday that a notice regarding executive compensation was quietly posted to Apple's website on Feb. 6, which briefly restated that board members' retainers start at $50,000 per year. The notice also implemented a new corporate governance rule requiring top executives to hold company stock worth at least triple their base salary.
Comments
Actually, Campbell is the one who should have been thrown off the board years ago. It has been at least 20 years since Intuit made a good product for Macs - and even then it was severely limited.
Users have been begging for file format and feature compatibility at least since the early 90s - and Intuit continues to add artificial limits to the Mac versions of their apps.
I have no issue with Tim Cook, Levinson, and Iger being on the board, the rest I find a little questionable (Gore has been occupying himself with self-enrichment ever since 2000, and collecting $200K for two hours of his time is certainly in keeping).
It would be great if you wrote why you think this would be a good thing.
That's not a lot of money for the advice of that calibre of people. But they should make sure the people on the board really are relevant and knowledgable or it is still a waste.
Quote:
Originally Posted by igriv
Gore has been occupying himself with self-enrichment ever since 2000, and collecting $200K for two hours of his time is certainly in keeping.
I'm sure having Mr Gore there opens doors that would otherwise remain closed. Whether you like him and his politics, or not, you can't deny that he has a profile and knows a lot of people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by igriv
I have no issue with Tim Cook, Levinson, and Iger being on the board, the rest I find a little questionable (Gore has been occupying himself with self-enrichment ever since 2000, and collecting $200K for two hours of his time is certainly in keeping).
For me , Al Gore will be eternally associated to PMRC (he supported his (ex) wife Tipper Gore, in this matter) :
The Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) was an American committee formed in 1985 with the stated goal of increasing parental control over the access of children to music deemed to be violent, have drug use or be sexual via labeling albums with Parental Advisory stickers. The committee was founded by four women: Tipper Gore, wife of Senator and later Vice PresidentAl Gore; Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker; Pam Howar, wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar; and Sally Nevius, wife of formerWashington City Council Chairman John Nevius. They were known as the "Washington wives" – a reference to their husbands' connections with government in the Washington, D.C. area. The Center eventually grew to include 22 participants.
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During his statement, musician and producer Frank Zappa asserted that "the PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretation and enforcement problems inherent in the proposal's design." He went on to state his suspicion that the hearings were a front for H.R. 2911, a proposed blank tape tax: "The major record labels need to have H.R. 2911 whiz through a few committees before anybody smells a rat. One of them is chaired by Senator Thurmond. Is it a coincidence that Mrs. Thurmond is affiliated with the PMRC?" Zappa had earlier stated about the Senate's agreement to hold a hearing on the matter that "A couple of blowjobs here and there and Bingo! — you get a hearing."[2]
Folk rock musician John Denver stated he was "strongly opposed to censorship of any kind in our society or anywhere else in the world", and that in his experience censors often misinterpret music, as was the case with his song "Rocky Mountain High". In addition, Denver expressed his belief that censorship is counterproductive: "That which is denied becomes that which is most desired, and that which is hidden becomes that which is most interesting. Consequently, a great deal of time and energy is spent trying to get at what is being kept from you." When Denver came up to give his speech, many on the PMRC board expected him to side with them, thinking he would be offended by the lyrics as well.
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On November 1, 1985, before the hearing ended, the RIAA agreed to put "Parental Advisory" labels on selected releases at their own discretion. The labels were generic, unlike the original idea of a descriptive label categorizing the explicit lyrics.
Many record stores refused to sell albums containing the label (most notably Wal-Mart), and others limited sales of those albums to adults. The label became known as the "Tipper sticker".[citation needed] One of the albums to receive the "Parental Advisory" sticker was Frank Zappa's Grammy-winning album Jazz From Hell, presumably for the use of the word "Hell" in its title but also for the song "G-Spot Tornado", even though it is a collection of instrumental pieces and contains no lyrics at all.
I totally agree. It is the only product I know that has actually caused some people I know to go back to a PC!
The Eagles' 'Hell Freezes Over' didn't seem to have a problem so not sure how that works ...
@digitalclips
Well, I know this PMRC stuff can be considered as just an outdated episode, because it dates back to 1985 now. (Interestingly (for me, at least), I discovered that relations in between Tipper Gore and the Zappa family improved over time (Tipper Gore even accepted to play (drums?) at the occasion of a Diva's Zappa daughter song recording))., and Zappa, before his death, said he received friendly letters from the Gore family.
But, what remains, and which is more in line with AppleInsider topic, is a possible debate about the « explicit » or « clean » tags which you can get on iTunes songs, and which seem to me very much in line with this « PMRC sticker ».
I have understood that these tags are not defined by Apple, but by the Music company owning the rights. Admitedly this « electronic sticker » is much less harmful than the physical one (and especially because iTunes distributes so-called « explicit » content).
But i do not feel comfortable with this (although as a Zappa fan I enjoy the fact that Zappa music is now available on iTunes (great achievement of Apple negociators ..). From what I have (rapidly) checked, none*** of Zappa songs is tagged in iTunes as « explicit » … (I do not know if this is a negotiation result ...)
*** except "penguin in bondage", which is not the more explicit .... (but not all versions !)
I don't know what there is to be uncomfortable about. It's not censorship - it's simply a way of letting purchasers know whether something contains lyrics that might be offensive. As a father of a teen girl, I appreciate it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
I don't know what there is to be uncomfortable about. It's not censorship - it's simply a way of letting purchasers know whether something contains lyrics that might be offensive. As a father of a teen girl, I appreciate it.
Well I cannot summarize for you the hearing (see ). One of the points made by Frank Zappa was that the judgment of the people categorizing a song as "explicit" can be questionable (and the fact that he had musical albums (no lyrics !) labelled as "explicit" supports this !). In fact Frank Zappa was in favor of printing the lyrics on the cover of the album, so that everyone could judge by themselves (this is not unfortunately possible, because it adds to the costs , and also because the ownership of the lyrics also raises legal issues).