14 DAY TRIAL // Roughly 450 headlines published yesterday took on Tim Cook’s newly-acquired ‘fortune’, after news had broken out that the man had been compensated several hundred million dollars for his role as CEO.
And who better to discuss fortunes if not Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Fortune magazine who believes those headlines don’t do Tim Cook justice.
The Apple pundit points out that Cook didn't really make $378 million in 2011 and that the 1 million restricted Apple shares granted to him last August went directly into his bank account.
The fact that Steve Jobs had a salary of just 1$ is also irrelevant, and even more so considering just how much money the late Apple co-founder was making from various other ventures.
Finally, DeWitt posts a paragraph from his colleague Adam Lashinsky's forthcoming book “Inside Apple”, just to set the record straight on how much Tim Cook really cares about money, and that the company’s core values have not changed a bit since Steve Jobs passing.
In an organization that frowned on talking about money, Cook was extraordinarily frugal. Well after he had sold more than $100 million in Apple stock, he rented a modest home in Palo Alto, a little over a mile from where Jobs lived. (In 2010, Cook finally bought a house of his own, not far from his previous rental, but hardly an extravagant one. Public records indicate he purchased the house for $1.9 million, which in Palo Alto qualifies as a modest abode.) Asked why he lived so humbly, he once said: "I like to be reminded of where I came from, and putting myself in modest surroundings helps me do that. Money is not a motivator for me."
A Google Maps image of Cook's Palo Alto home can be seen above. For comparison, an aerial photograph of one of many houses owned by Larry Ellison (billionaire CEO of Oracle) is provided.