(Bloomberg) – Nine years after Steve Jobs resigned and Tim Cook went to the top of Apple Inc. sent, the company is more valuable than ever – and so is Cook.
Apple’s share price rose nearly 5% last week, leaving the company Jobs co-founded 44 years ago in the home of its parents in California at the head of the stock market milestone: a market value of nearly $ 2 trillion.
It was valued at about $ 350 billion when Jobs died. Cook has meanwhile joined one of the most elite clubs for CEOs who have not found the companies they manage: its net worth is $ 1 billion, according to calculations by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Cook’s net worth estimate is based on an analysis of regulatory applications and the application of a typical wealthy investor’s market performance to its proceeds from stock sales. Cook, 59, said in 2015 that he plans to give away most of his fortune and has already paid millions of shares to Apple shares. His wealth could be lower if he made other undisclosed charitable gifts.
Josh Rosenstock, a spokesman for Apple, declined to comment.
“This technical cycle has been a lot bigger and longer than I thought,” said Hussein Kanji, a partner at venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures, who was cautious about Apple’s long-term prospects after Jobs left the company. “Of all these resources, Apple has become the largest cash-generating machine in history.”
FAANG shares
Apple’s market value and Cook’s wealth reflect the rise of FAANG shares, a phrase that did not even exist during the Jobs era. It also comes as Cook and his fellow Big Tech CEOs – Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Inc., Sundar Pichai of Alphabet Inc. and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Inc. – anti-trust studies oppose what their critics characterize as monopolistic forces.
While Bezos and Zuckerberg have had enormous strikes in the companies they founded, Cook’s path to the 10-figure club was more incremental. The vast majority of his riches come from stock prices he has received since joining Apple in 1998, where he has drawn plaudits for mastering the company’s complex supply chain.
He received a massive distinction of limited shares on his first day as CEO. The capital is disbursed in annual steps, with part of it depending on the share of Apple that at least two-thirds of the companies perform in the S&P 500. Cook, amid a sudden drop in Apple’s share price, Cook is set to receive its ninth payout of the 560,000 share, later this month.
About half of this will likely be held for tax purposes, but the rest should boost Cook’s fortune by another $ 100 million. He currently owns 847,969 shares directly, or about 0.02% of Apple shares, worth about $ 375 million. Proceeds from previous share sales, dividends and other compensation add another $ 650 million to its net worth, according to calculations by Bloomberg. Apple stock rose 1.4% Monday to $ 450.79 at 2:07 p.m.
Mammoth positions
Cook’s interest is small compared to the founders of mammoth positions such as Bezos, Zuckerberg and Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk control at their respective companies. Apple shares are widely distributed among various investors and executives, so the most valuable company in the world has quite a few billionaires among its employees.
When Jobs resigned in August 2011 and died shortly thereafter, Cook had already served several times as CEO. But investors and analysts were worried that Apple could not innovate as much as in the past.
Although Apple has not unveiled as groundbreaking a new product as the iPhone in recent decades, the company is still thriving. Cook oversees the development of devices such as the iPhone X and Apple Watch, new services such as Apple Music, and research into new fronts such as self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses.
Even the pandemic, which has hammered many other parts of the economy, has been a reward for Apple and other big tech companies, as people are even more confident in their products and services.
Their recent success stands in stark contrast to the economic upheaval caused by the coronavirus: a growing string of bankruptcies, tens of millions of unemployed and massive public deficits.
When Apple recently reported results, Cook acknowledged the hardships faced by legions of families and businesses.
“We do not have a zero-sum approach to prosperity,” he said at a conference call. “Especially in times like these, we are focused on growing the pie, and making sure our success is not just our success.”
(Updates share price in 10th paragraph.)
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