AAPL COO sells shares, execs pay taxes

On the heels of Apple's CEO Steve Jobs turning in almost 4.6 million company shares to pay taxes on 10 million shares that had recently vested, several other Apple executives took similar actions on stock owed to them by the company, while Apple's chief operating officer (COO) elected to cash in on his shares, instead of net-share settling. The shares were part of 2.4 million restricted shares that Apple's board had previously approved as executive compensation. Like Jobs' 10 million shares, these shares also vested this month. Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Bertrand Serlet, and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip W. Schiller each forfeited 114,375 of the quarter million shares owed to them to pay their tax obligations.

Senior Vice President of the company's iPod Division Jon Rubinstein, Senior Vice President of Applications Sina Tamaddon, and Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson were also due to receive a quarter million shares. These executives, however, only had to turn in 112,707 of their shares to pay for tax obligations. Senior Vice President and General Counsel Nancy R. Heinen, and Chief Software Technology Officer Avadis "Avie" Tevanian each had 200,000 shares vest, and exchanged 91,500 to pay the for taxes.

Only one member of Apple's executive team did not elect to net-share settle his restricted shares, Chief Operating Officer, Timothy D. Cook. Cook, responsible for the company's daily operations, choose to sell the 300,000 shares he was granted in a series of transactions on the open market. The sale, which occurred at prices between $59.08 and $60.87 a share, yielded the COO roughly $18 million.

Filed under: Apple