Slashdot Mirror


Apple Cuts Tim Cook's Pay After 2016 Performance Falls Short (cnbc.com)

Apple cut CEO Tim Cook's 2016 pay after the iPhone maker missed its revenue and profit goals for the year. From a report on CNBC: Although Cook's annual salary went up by $1 million, he received $8.75 million in total compensation for the year, according to an SEC filing posted on Friday, down from the $10.28 million he received in 2015. Company executives received about 89.5 percent of their targeted annual incentives. The company said its annual sales were down nearly 4 percent, or $215.6 billion, from its target of $223.6 billion, and its operating income was down 0.5 percent from its target at $60 billion, according to the filing.Apple last year faced declining revenue as it grappled with the first prolonged slump in iPhone sales. The salary of some other executives were also trimmed.

44 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Not news until his salary is $0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thin will be in until he's removed as CEO. HP made their laptop 1.8mm thicker for a third more battery life in order to drive their 17" 4K monitor. Apple needs to do the same.

    1. Re:Not news until his salary is $0 by barc0001 · · Score: 2

      I think it's complete overkill on anything less than a 27" personally. Even then, I have a 2560x1440 32" I use and find that's pretty much the perfect balance for me.

    2. Re:Not news until his salary is $0 by timholman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Thin will be in until he's removed as CEO. HP made their laptop 1.8mm thicker for a third more battery life in order to drive their 17" 4K monitor. Apple needs to do the same.

      The fact that Apple significantly reduced the capacity of the batteries in the 2016 models just to make them thinner says volumes about the design choices going on behind the scenes. It's all part and parcel with the removal of the MagSafe connectors, the removal of all ports except USB-C. The people who are deciding how a "professional" laptop should be designed are clearly not using a laptop in a professional capacity.

    3. Re:Not news until his salary is $0 by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      Except that what they forgot was that if we wanted a [expletive deleted] iPad with a keyboard, we would have bought one. We buy a MacBook( | Air| Pro) because it gets the job done, and as soon as they remove parts that we depend on, or compromise it in such a way that it no longer gets the job done, we'll wait to buy an upgrade until they fix it, or if necessary, switch platforms entirely.

      Things got so bad this time that OWC is in the planning stages for a product called DEC that adds back most of the stuff that Apple has removed over the past four years. If it were time for me to upgrade my MBP, were it not for the horribly dangerous USB-C connector sticking out of the side of the laptop, I'd buy one of those in a heartbeat. Heck yes, give me a thicker MBP with real storage, a full set of ports, more battery, etc. (That said, it absolutely needs HDMI, or else it still isn't quite ready.)

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    4. Re:Not news until his salary is $0 by lgw · · Score: 2

      The trick is not BEING in business. The trick is STAYING in business.
      Seeing as Apple is the most successful business of all time..

      Standard Oil says hi - see you in 100 years and we'll talk.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  2. Re: Woo hoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, they're on fire!

  3. But why? by jandersen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The question that never seems to get asked is: Why do these executives get these incredible salaries? Does anybody - apart from the tiny elite at the top - really think it is good value for money?

    1. Re:But why? by CajunArson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What's so "incredible" about a $9 million salary for the CEO of one of the most valuable companies anywhere?

      It's downright pedestrian compared to what many sports players get to throw a ball or make tackles, and it comes with a massively higher responsibility to boot.

      --
      AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    2. Re:But why? by DickBreath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I'm no fan of the R's, not even a little bit, it's not just the R's that are the problem. The D's also want to keep the poor people in their place. Why do you think the D's candidate didn't win? If you think either party is going to help you, then you already have the strong delusion.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    3. Re:But why? by The-Ixian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They are the person where the "buck stops". Apple has a bad year? Blame the person at the top. Apple had a great year? Praise the person at the top.

      That's a lot of pressure. I think I would pass on 9 million/year for that kind of responsibility. I live ok. I don't have access to all the toys, but I am relatively happy with what I got.

      --
      My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
    4. Re: But why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If anything the D's biggest problem this past election cycle is they are unwilling to tell the really big lies. Like, D's aren't willing to promise that all the manufacturing and buggy whip jobs are coming back, because obviously they can't. Technology is making those jobs go away and people need to adapt as best they can. For those who can't adapt, we need strong social safety nets in the form of unemployment welfare or basic income.

      Republitards want to gut all the social safety systems while making false promises about all the coal mining and assembly line jobs they are going to bring back.

      Funny how people are more willing to work as wage slaves in shitty jobs that destroy the environment than they are willing to just accept a little help from the government.

    5. Re:But why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      why do you think the D's want to keep the poor in their place?

      So they keep voting D.

    6. Re:But why? by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 2

      The question that never seems to get asked is: Why do these executives get these incredible salaries? Does anybody - apart from the tiny elite at the top - really think it is good value for money?

      The question that never seems to get asked: What business is it of yours what some else at a private company gets paid? Apparently, the board of directors think it is good value for the money. If they didn't, the board of directors and stockholders will get rid of them and hire someone else. I'm not a Tim Cook fan, and I think he's made several bad decisions, but I'm not a stockholder--or a busybody either.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    7. Re:But why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A subtle distinction, but you're paid what you're worth to the person paying you.

    8. Re:But why? by sir-gold · · Score: 2

      If he is responsible, then why doesn't he get punished when things go wrong?

      If they had taken ALL of his compensation, it would have almost covered the whole amount the lost.

      Instead they RAISED his salary.

    9. Re:But why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      why do you think the D's want to keep the poor in their place?

      I think Scrooge from Mikey's Christmas Carol puts it nicely:

      Scrooge: Oh. Aha. Well um, you realize if you give money to the poor, they won't be poor anymore, will they?
      Collector for the Poor #2: Well, I...
      Scrooge: And if they're not *poor* anymore, then you won't have to raise money for them anymore.
      Collector for the Poor #1: Well, I suppose...
      Scrooge: And if you don't have to raise money for them anymore, then you'd be out of a job. Oh please, gentlemen, don't ask me to put you out of a job. Not on Christmas Eve.

      The fact is (and, FTR, I'm an Independent), the D's get a lot of power and money from claiming to want to fix these issues. So, if these issues ever actually get fixed, then guess what goes away....the hammer they get to beat Republicans with. So, they do great Kabuki Theater of fundraising on claims of wanting to fix all these things, and then when they don't get fixed, they can blame Republicans for being the obstructionists and hating the poor and sick and women and homosexuals and everybody else they need to get money from.

    10. Re:But why? by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The question that never seems to get asked is: Why do these executives get these incredible salaries? Does anybody - apart from the tiny elite at the top - really think it is good value for money?

      That's not really the question. Steve Jobs was demonstrably worth hundreds of billions of dollars to Apple's shareholders.

      The real question is "why do these executives continue to get incredible salaries when they demonstrably do nothing for the company?"

      The issue is that they're being paid as if they're founders when, in fact, they're simply running a ship that someone else built and set out to sea. It's not the same job and nowhere near as difficult. Jobs took a company that was nearly bankrupt and turned it into the world's most valuable company. Unless Cook seriously steps up his game he either needs to be paid $100K/year for the job he's doing or replaced. If he's not replaced soon, Apple will likely be irreparably harmed.

    11. Re:But why? by tsqr · · Score: 2

      The money they pay those high-priced exec doesn't come out of thin air, it comes directly out of our pockets, in the form of higher prices and lower wages.

      OK, what would happen if Cook was paid $0 per year and the money spread among the employees in the form of pay increases? Apple directly employs 66,000 people in the US. Dividing Cook's $8.75 million annual pay among them would increase their pay by a whopping $2.54 per week; more than enough for a venti Starbucks coffee. The non-US employees will have to continue getting by on their current wages.

      Well, maybe we should use that money to decrease the price of iPhones instead. Apple sold about 212 million iPhones in 2016, so they could drop the price by $0.04.

    12. Re:But why? by erapert · · Score: 2

      Watch Milton Freidman's Freedom to Choose and/or read or watch anything by Thomas Sowell. They do a very good job of outlining the ways in which progressives/liberals/democrats have set up a system to "keep the poor down". That is not to say that they agree with Republican policies, though.

      tl;dr of libertarian and free market capitalist thought: If you're waiting on someone else to give you money it won't happen without strings attached (vote for me or else) and almost always ends in things not going as you wanted them to. If you stand up on your hind legs and make a way for yourself then at least you'll be free.

    13. Re:But why? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 2

      Strange, I've been around Slashdot since ~2000, and it's never been a particularly "progressive" believe "system" or liberal. Nor has it been conservative. It's been libertarian - the classic Slashdot poster cares more about individual freedoms and respect of personal privacy than they care about either conservative or liberal politicking.

      It goes hand-in-hand with the open source movement.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    14. Re:But why? by fropenn · · Score: 2

      The goal is not to 'raise money to give money to the poor until they are no longer poor.' Rather, the goal is to create a society where people don't have suffer poverty - which is about high-quality, affordable education for all, accessible and affordable health care that doesn't bankrupt you when you get sick, an equitable society where all persons have opportunities regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or other minority status, and so on. R's and D's disagree substantially on many of the best strategies for these issues (take, affordable care act, for example).

    15. Re:But why? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 2

      Tim Cook has made demonstrably more money for Apple than Steve Jobs technically did. Now a lot of that is carrying on momentum, but Cook isn't exactly driving the company into a ditch. He's been CEO of Apple for more than 5 years, and those have been 5 really exemplary years. Look over the last 5 years of product releases and see how much great stuff has come out of them.

      When you take the long view, years like this aren't actually terribly relevant. Whether Apple continues to innovate and make big things is a long term question, and a few quarters of *slower growth* doesn't necessarily presage a huge failure.

      Cook doesn't need to 'seriously step up his game'--Apple is the biggest, most successful company in the world right now. There are bound to be times where they stumble and are only slightly more rich than everyone else. Cook DOES need to be careful that he's thinking about the company's future, that the products in the pipeline are where the puck is going to be, not where the puck is right now, and that they don't get complacent just because they ARE so large. Maybe he needs to shorten Jony Ive's leash a bit or give C-Fed more resources to crush bugs in iOS/macOS, I'm not sure. Either way, I don't think you can make that assessment right now.

    16. Re:But why? by cdrudge · · Score: 2

      Tim Cook has been paid nearly $400 worth of Apple stock...

      So almost 4 shares. Impressive.

    17. Re:But why? by jsepeta · · Score: 2

      Any salary over $1M is more than a person needs to live in a year, and is the failure of the board of directors to focus on making the company more profitable.

      --
      Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
    18. Re: But why? by dgatwood · · Score: 2

      Unless they removed him after SJ left, Woz still has badge access.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    19. Re:But why? by painandgreed · · Score: 2

      Ya, I'm an L that votes for whatever failed R they usually get myself. I'm in a strong Bernie state and even caucused for him (mainly to go through and see the caucus process, I could never find any info on L caucusing if there was any) and have to say that I never got any strong message from Hillary supporters as to any message. We let all three in my caucus group go and they pretty much had nothing to say but "It'll be nice to have a woman as President." One ex-Brit woman who is now an American replied "That's what I thought voting for Thatcher the first time she ran." Later I would usually ask H supporters, "Ok, besides that she's a woman and she's not Trump, what message does she have or why should I vote for her other than Bernie?" and usually got nothing. While I think she has much better experience, plays a decent backroom political game, and would be a better President than T, she doesn't have a fraction of the charisma or appeal to the public as any SNL character of her had.

  4. Falling sales not a huge surprise by sjbe · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apple last year faced declining revenue as it grappled with the first prolonged slump in iPhone sales.

    Not really shocking. The iPhone 7 is barely different from the iPhone 6. They gave users no reason to upgrade. They've basically ignored the Macintosh line for several years now. They haven't done anything particularly novel or interesting in their iPad line in quite a while. They introduced the Apple Pencil but didn't really commit to building the software to make it useful or give users a way to store it in/with the device between uses. I hate to say it but the Microsoft Surface line has been a lot more innovative recently. The Apple Watch was always going to be a niche product at best and they haven't done anything interesting with Apple TV.

    Apple hasn't released anything new or noteworthy so why should their revenue be expected to go up. Their products are still good but they really need to push the envelope a bit more if they want to maintain their current gaudy profit margins.

  5. Poor guy! by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

    Only 8 millions! How will he possibly survive?

    Folks, let's start a Patreon for him, we cannot let him starve.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  6. At least it's something.... by beheaderaswp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's face it... it's not as if replacing Jobs was going to be an easy task- it may have been impossible.

    That being said, Apple is not living up to the standard Jobs set. Maybe that's Cook's fault... maybe not. The recent products are lame. They've eviscerated their computer business. So if new products don't hit... it's not like they can fall back on the unfulfilled promise of OSX. They've been so successful with new consumer innovations, they've tossed away all the vertical markets they used to rule.

    This is a dangerous position. They shouldn't cut his pay- they should fire him and find someone to take over.

    --
    Another consultant who stuck it out.

    "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
    1. Re:At least it's something.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Problem was always that Jobs was a "visionary" who could direct the design process of the hardware and software while Cook was a numbers man whose expertise is the bottom line. When you want a new tech product you don't ask your accountant but this is essentially what is happening at Apple

    2. Re:At least it's something.... by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

      Maybe he wanted Cook to push the rest of his stuff out to market and another idea person might not have done that. A numbers guy will keep the ship steady on course. The problem is that Cook has been there for too long and it appears that innovation has stagnated. So they are buying companies and plastering Apples interface over their work. And the biggest problem is that Apple is concentrating on the big, shiny new thing and letting everything else go.

      Apple desperately needs someone to come in and get people back onto the Apple philosophy. Their current Music iOS application doesn't have that ease of use because it forces uses to take a lot of extra steps that previous versions didn't. And having different features on the iPhones based on the screen size is a terrible decision.

  7. New iPhone every year except 2016 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can remember sitting outside in 2007 waiting for the store to open and start selling the original iPhone. It was hot in the mid-summer sun sitting on that hard concrete, but it was worth it to upgrade from the aging PalmOS. It wasn't perfect, but I loved it. I ended up buying the latest one every year since just to have the fastest version of my favorite phone. That lasted until 2016.

    Of 10 friends (and their spouses), virtually no one has upgraded to an iPhone 7. Half upgraded to a larger storage capacity iPhone 6S intending to keep it for another year or more. The rest have considered Android, but haven't made a purchase. Losing the headphone jack has been a major problem. If it isn't connecting it to your older car with 3.5", but no Bluetooth, it is connecting it to headphones or something else we already own.

    Hopefully Apple will be brave enough to put the headphone jack back in. I can't see using a phone without one. I'm apparently not the only one.

    1. Re:New iPhone every year except 2016 by labnet · · Score: 2

      Yep. I bought an oppo F1 as a temporary phone Between my iPhone 4 In anticipation of the the new iPhone 7. In the mean time, the oppo at 1/3 the price has done everything I've needed it to do + no headphone jack on the 7 = no sale for me. The transition off the apple Eco system wasn't as painful as I thought.

      --
      46137
  8. Let's hope he doesn't double down by sandbagger · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am sure that some PR dolt is telling Apple that they really get to the public to understand their message. However, it seems clear that the sustained and pretty narrow criticism that their non-phone hardware is crappy is not a marginal opinion. They simplified their line into a 'use old laptop parts for everything' which may make sense from the perspective of simplifying their parts bin but not for much else.

    This does mean they have a lot of options for correcting this tailspin. It may be selfish, but from my perspective I want a data truck. Give me a Mac Pro tower.

    --
    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
    1. Re:Let's hope he doesn't double down by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

      The cheese grater towers were fantastic machines. I'm still running two myself, albeit with hacks so they'll run Mavericks.

      What "hacks" for Mavericks? I didn't think you needed any hacks for those until you got to El Capitan or Sierra.

    2. Re:Let's hope he doesn't double down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      To get it running on a 1,1 and a 2,1 you need you a modified boot.efi because they have 32 bit EFIs. https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1rsp3q/install_mavericks_on_older_mac_pro_11_21_20062007/

  9. Have WOZ come back and make good macs by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Have WOZ come back and make good macs that pro users, gamers, etc can use.

  10. That'll never work by vux984 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Getting a pay cut isn't going to motivate him. He clearly isn't bringing his A game... he needs to be incentivized; perhaps a more aggressive bonus structure, or more stock options? Maybe he needs a big raise? You need to do this to attract and retain talent! /sarcasm

  11. Tim Cook and Jony Ive should both be $0 by DougReed · · Score: 3, Informative

    Tim Cook is a stupid bean counter, and Jony Ive is destroying Apple with his ego. The lost their Consumer Reports recommendation for the first time. Their machines are becoming dreadful.

  12. 4% decline in sales? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is the effect of them neglecting their impoverished desktops and laptops line-ups. I hate them for having me to use 6.5 year old MBP laptop with no suitable PC/Win equivalent in the last few years. I want Apple power laptop, not a shiny-encrusted chicken shit tablet calculator worth €3333.

  13. Re:engineers salaries by imgod2u · · Score: 2

    According to Glassdoor:

    https://www.glassdoor.com/Sala...

    ~240k

    So Cook gets ~37X what a seasoned engineer gets. That's relatively low compared to most large companies. In fact, ~9M/year is damn low. Marissa did little for Yahoo other than spend other people's money to buy failed ideas and she still got roughly 20M/year.

  14. Apple needs a CEO with vision by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 2

    Fire his ass and get a leader with vision. The iPhone is slumped because there is nothing to drive sales. NO ONE WANTS A THIN PHONE if it means poor battery life and a weak frame that can bend during normal use. Give me more features like an IR camera, night vision camera, an internal LED projector, plug in keyboard and screen for desktop functionality, stereoscopic cameras for 3D pictures, a waterproof design, a much tougher screen (this is not even that hard, you basically just make your screen plastic with a top replaceable layer. When the layer gets scratched, you replace it. The plastic screen will not shatter, and the top layer protects the main screen from scratches.)

    There is still a lot of potential for smart phones; Apple used to be innovating, now they are coasting on their trendy consumer base, but that will push them back to a 5% market share.

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
  15. Job's Genius [Re:But why?] by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Do you truly, in the deepest of your heart, believe that [Steve Jobs] accomplished that alone?

    Jobs had an uncanny ability to coordinate the intersection of new technology, manufacturability, and consumer taste. He also knew to spot a zig when others were zagging.

    He made Woz's Apple II marketable, tamed GUI's when Xerox Star failed, helped start Pixar when the financial failure of Tron spooked the rest of the CGI market, brought out cool desktop computer designs when the rest of the industry was bland beige or Sony black, simplified Apple's product line, and made the brave choice of tossing the physical phone keyboard for an all-screen design despite Blackberry's success. Other co's would have me-too'd on the Blackberry: playing it safe by cloning the design of the top competitor.

    There are many interesting ideas floating around, but to package them in a way that consumers can digest, and manufacture them at a reasonable cost requires a multidisciplinary approach, and guts. Few people have the skill or knowledge to balance all three.

    Jobs may have had the equivalent of Google Glass useful, marketable, and affordable by now.

  16. Agree with your sentiment, but not your assertions by Brannon · · Score: 2

    > NO ONE WANTS A THIN PHONE

    hundreds of millions of people want a thin phone

    > if it means poor battery life

    the iPhone doesn't have poor battery life, it has really good battery life for the usage patters of the vast majority of customers

    > and a weak frame that can bend during normal use

    This is not a real problem.

    ---

    I agree that Apple needs to give people better reasons to upgrade their phone, they're clearly out of ideas and are squarely into incrementalism.