GCs Take and Leave Millions at Apple

Not too long ago, we wrote about the merry-go-round of general counsels at Apple (complete with graphic timeline!).

One feature we should have analyzed was the stock-options flying all over the place, especially since the company has such a notorious history in the area.

After the jump, the grants the GCs have cashed and, more interestingly, left on the table. (Could you walk away from $30 million?)

Going in chronological order of the interesting GCs, we start with Nancy Heinen, who was at the center of the company’s backdating mess. In her settlement with the SEC, she paid $2.2 million in disgorgement, interest, and penalties. She also agreed to be suspended from practicing law for three years. Fortunately, she had cashed in more than $50 million in Apple stock during her tenure.

Then things start to get interesting, as the revolving door starts swinging.

The notoriously difficult Steve Jobs then brought in Don Rosenberg from IBM in November 2006. Ten months later, Rosenberg left for Qualcomm, leaving $30 million on the table. Granted, the stock vested over four years, but he was still a little over two months away from $7.5 million. Still, by 2008, he was almost at the top of the best-paid GCs list, taking home $9.67 ($70,000 away from being #1).

Rosenberg was replaced by Oracle’s Dan Cooperman (a Bingham veteran) in November 2007. He lasted all of 22 months, until he was forced into retirement earlier this month. That cost him $18 million, according to Cal Law. Cooperman was resigning effective the end of this month (today) and had about 19,000 shares, according to the most-recent Form 4 we could find for him. That’s only $3.5 million (and that’s gross of the $73.62 per share he paid). Unfortunately (for us), he’s not one of the named executives, so his holdings aren’t separately disclosed in the company’s proxy statements.

Cooperman’s replacement, Bruce Sewell from Intel, was granted 100,000 restricted stock units (Cal Law called them options) on September 21, which vest 25% over each of the next four years. Based on today’s closing price of $185.38, that’s $18,538,000 (he’s already in the money for over $100,000 – the stock closed on the date of the grant at $184.02).

Related posts:

1. The Apple GC Merry-go-Round
2. Apple, IBM Resolve Noncompete Fight
3. Why Leave?
4. New Arrivals Settle Long-Running Patent Dispute
5. Apple Sued for Infringing Patents It Thought It Had