Mac OS X developer cashing in with Apple
updated 01:05 pm EDT, Tue August 9, 2005
OS X developer cashes in
Bertrand Serlet, the Frenchman who played a critical role in creating Mac OS X, is as Apple's stock continues to rise. Exercising his stock options last year, last July alone Serlet made $3.2 million in net gains from insider stock transactions, according to Thomas Financial. Serlet totaled $7.6 million in the past year from sales of Apple shares obtained through stock options. Apple's stock more than doubled in the past year from $15 per share at the beginning of late August to the $38-$43 range when Serlet began exercising his options in mid-July, according to The Mercury News. Utilizing his compensation plan, Serlet was able to purchase stock options for $9.25 per share and sell them at market prices for quadruple his cost. Serlet told CNET in September that he is a proponent of open-source software and maintains that Apple's software security benefits from a great number of eyes examining its source code.
Why is this news?
08/09, 02:21pm reply
I'm sure plenty of people exercised their Apple options recently, including other Apple employees past and present.
thoughton
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2003
Nationalities
08/09, 02:22pm reply
Bertrand Serlet, the Frenchman who played a critical role in creating Mac OS X [...]
Why in h*** does it matter that he's French?
I look forward to being told the nationalities of all personalities involved in future MacNN stories.
SomeToast
Senior User
Joined: Jan 1999
Open source
08/09, 02:59pm reply
Well, I'm sure he's happy, though, that OS X on a whole isn't open source, thus driving Apple out of the OS business and thus him out of a job AND making his stock options worthless.
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
Umm
08/09, 03:23pm reply
If the options were granted last year wouldn't that be pre-split options? I mean, the 15 share price MacNN quotes was before the stock ran up, then split, then ran up again. Pre-split pricing would be $100 or more a share.
PBG4 User
Senior User
Joined: Feb 2001
I wonder…
08/10, 03:40am reply
if he'd like to adopt me as his stepbrother.
Seriously, this guy has done well out of his options - but do we think he's done any better than Avie, who I seem to remember is now seriously wealthy from his options.
Good luck to all of them: I've got a great OS and some fabulous hardware to play with, I don't care how much they get from stock options as it's not really my money.
MCCFR
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Joined: Aug 2004
Who??
08/11, 07:43am reply
"Bertrand Serlet, the Frenchman who played a critical role in creating Mac OS X"
I must have a hole in my brain. I've been closely following ALL of Apple's "next-gen OS plans" since before Copeland, through Rhapsody and even PURCHASED the OS X beta (and every release since).
During this whole time, I never remember hearing this chap's name in a discussion. Not once.
Here's the guy's bio from Apple: http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/serlet.html
From more googling on the subject, it does look like he's been around....PARC, NeXT, Apple...but all the press is PR boilerplate.
I don't intend this to sound like criticism of this man or his accomplishments, but for MACNN to make a casure reference to "Bertrand Serlet" as if he was Dr. Suess or Steve Jobs (i.e. famous) seems a little absurd even to me.
mccabem
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Joined: Oct 1999