New Retail SVP Angela Ahrendts Receives Signing Bonus Worth $68 Million

New Apple Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores Angela Ahrendts has received a signing bonus potentially worth $68 million at current share prices, in the form of 113,334 restricted stock units that vest over the next four years.

Ahrendts will receive shares spread over several different vesting periods between June 1, 2014 and June 14, 2018, assuming Ahrendts stays with the company. Were Apple's share price to rise, the RSUs could potentially be worth significantly more over that time.

A restricted stock unit is a standard form of stock compensation that reward employees for staying with the company. They are used as general compensation and for employee retention. Each RSU converts to one share of stock on its vesting date, typically set annually based on award date.

Because of Apple's upcoming 7:1 stock split, awarded RSUs will be multiplied by seven to maintain value. Apple does award dividends to employee holders of RSUs as if they were standard shares, so the more than 110,000 shares that Ahrendts holds will be worth nearly $1.5 million in yearly dividend payments.

Angela Ahrendts officially joined Apple earlier this month.

Tag: Angela Ahrendts

Top Rated Comments

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huggyb

56 months ago

is anybody really worth that kind of signing bonus when they haven't even seen how she performs? So weird to me, imo.

Rating: 23 Votes

vartanarsen

56 months ago

Don't care who you are... Nobody is worth that much a signing bonus

Rating: 21 Votes

PJL500

56 months ago

That's more than I'll make in my lifetime. And she gets that just for signing on to Apple? Dang.

Assuming you average $200K p/a income over your 40yr working life (lucky you) her sign-on bonus is more than you'd make in 8 of your lifetimes. Jus saying'.

Rating: 19 Votes

michaelsviews

56 months ago

Your Kidding

NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE is worth this. And this is one of the reason's the economy is crap. Over inflated salary's.

Rating: 19 Votes

joshwenke

56 months ago

That's more than I'll make in my lifetime. And she gets that just for signing on to Apple? Dang.

Rating: 15 Votes

flychild

56 months ago

while Foxconn slave away

Rating: 13 Votes

SchneiderMan

56 months ago

Instead of ridiculous bonus sums, why not increase the hourly wage for your hard working retail employees, Apple.

Rating: 12 Votes

sransari

56 months ago

NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE is worth this. And this is one of the reason's the economy is crap. Over inflated salary's.

I think your understanding of the economy is as bad as your understanding of apostrophes.

Rating: 10 Votes

peterdevries

56 months ago

There are a lot of hard working and productive people that don't get paid a living wage.

You are of course right, but there is no point in making that comparison.

Maybe this helps in understanding what is going on a bit:

· Below about USD 200,000* people are paid based on the production they run and how hard they work. Nothing wrong with that.
· Anywhere above USD 200,000 people are paid on the value they create for an organization. Stockbrokers generate profits and get paid a percentage of that. Movie stars and Basketball players etc generate income on marketability which doesnt necessarily correlate to the actual productivity they exhibit.

Ahrendts falls in the second category. Her work will be coordinating the next phase of Apples retail store strategy. The calculated profit increase (and you can bet that she has designed a plan for that as part of her negotiations with Apple) will result in a percentage-wise return to her. It has to do with value and knowledge and is absolutely unrelated to her personal productivity.

There are only a few people on this planet that are able to generate billions for a company such as Apple. If Ahrendts is able to do that than it is within rights that the supply and demand mechanisms result in a bonus that is high enough to avoid her being poached away by the next company with a retail revamping strategy.

*depends on the industry, country and other variables, but this is the general idea.

Rating: 10 Votes

ChrisA

56 months ago

I don't know if she is worth that or not, but Apple's board of directors thought John Browett and Mark Papermaster were the second coming, and they both flamed out in a big way. I just seems like a lot of money for someone who has yet to show any accomplishments. ....

She ONLY gets the money if she can stay four year. That means doing well enough to not get fired.

In other words, if it turns out she is NOT worth the $68M they fire her before the stocks vest.

Rating: 9 Votes

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