"Golden Apple" for Jobs due in March

The "Golden Apple for Jobs" is coming in March, ahead of the company's 30th anniversary on April 1st. Following a series of all-time highs during Expo week and Apple's passing of Dell's marketcap, Bloomberg News reports that Steve Jobs will be able to cash in on more than $800 million from his restricted stock grant he received in 2003. "Jobs exchanged worthless options on a split-adjusted 55 million shares for 10 million shares of restricted stock three years ago. The shares, the 50-year- old's entire stake in Apple, vest in March. Right now, they are valued at $808.6 million."

The split-adjusted 10 million share grant was given to Jobs in exchange for his "worthless" options on 55 million shares--worthless because the shares had "dropped 80 percent in the preceding three years amid a worldwide economic slowdown that crimped computer purchases." The 5 million shares (pre-split) on that day were worth just under $15 per share, according to the report. Apple's stock closed on Friday at over $85, following a split.

"It's a bargain," said Chuck Jones, who helps manage $16 billion for Atlantic Trust Stein Roe in San Francisco, including Apple shares. "I'd gladly pay him another $808.6 million to have him create another $65 billion in market cap."

Jobs also owns 60 million shares of his "other" company, Pixar. His 50.1 percent stake in the company, which is worth about $3.4 billion now, has increased in value by 20 percent or more each of the past five years, according to the report.

Filed under: Apple