Key Highlights:
- APPLE CEO Tim Cook has received a $750 million (£500 million) share windfall.
- According to documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, he just sold the majority of them and donated $10 million to an unidentified charity.
- According to Forbes data, the number of US billionaires increased from 614 to 708 between March 2020 and August 2021.
Tim Cook becomes wealthier
APPLE CEO Tim Cook has received a $750 million (£500 million) share windfall, the latest proof that the wealth of America’s wealthiest CEOs has increased during the recession.
The share award is part of a contract struck last year that will keep him at the iPhone company until 2026, and it comes on the heels of a 1200 percent increase in Apple stock since he succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011. His overall fortune is estimated to be $1.5 billion, a small fraction of what other tech executives have amassed.
According to Forbes, US billionaires’ wealth has increased by two-thirds to $1.8 trillion under Covid, owing to the unprecedented rise in the market value of the digital businesses they established. Lockdowns and the shutdown of significant swaths of the economy made the internet behemoths vital to many individuals.
Increasing wealth inequality
In the United States, the political left has asked for windfall taxes on large profits to help pay for Covid relief packages and another government spending.
Even others who disagree have expressed concern about increasing wealth inequality and the influence that has accumulated on a small number of very wealthy people. Cook received five million Apple shares around the time of his tenth year as CEO.
According to documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, he just sold the majority of them and donated $10 million to an unidentified charity. Cook has stated that he plans to give away the majority of his money before he dies, a commitment that fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have previously made.
Many people questioned Cook’s ability to maintain Apple’s remarkable run when he initially became CEO. Instead, he controlled new areas, such as China, and assisted the company in developing new goods and gaining new customers. Cook has also been in charge of Apple’s more than 100 acquisitions as well as the creation of a film studio.
Increase in the US billionaires
According to Forbes data, the number of US billionaires increased from 614 to 708 between March 2020 and August 2021. There were less than 70 in 1990.
The United Kingdom is home to an estimated 171 billionaires, the richest of whom is claimed to be Sir Len Blavatnik, Ukrainian-born energy and aluminum entrepreneur worth £23 billion. Property tycoons David and Simon Reuben finish in second place with £21 billion.
It was revealed that the future CEO of Mike Ashley’s Fraser Group — Sports Direct’s holding company – might earn £100 million.
Michael Murray, 31, must meet some lofty share price objectives in order to claim the award, but the sum may rekindle MPs’ and the public’s dissatisfaction with CEO compensation.
Also Read: How Technology Behind Bitcoin can help the Research World?
