The senior VP of iOS software at Apple, Scott Forstall, sold 95 percent of his available company stocks last Friday, an SEC filing reveals. In total 65,151 shares were sold off, valued at $38.7 million. The remaining 2,988 shares were worth $1.8 million at the close of Friday trading.
Three key Apple executives have made about $150 million after selling newly-vested restricted stock, SEC filings show. CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and senior worldwide marketing VP Phil Schiller were among several executives granted shares in September 2008 in order to buy their loyalty through 2012. Although the shares were valued at just $105.26 each at the time, the grants were in total worth roughly $122 million.
Apple on Friday sent filings to the SEC that showed one of the larger bonus payouts to its senior vice presidents in recent memory. iOS head Scott Forstall, Hardware Engineering's Bob Mansfield, CFO Peter Oppenheimer, Worldwide Product Marketing lead Phil Schiller, general legal counsel Bruce Sewell, and operations head Jeff Williams all received share awards of 150,000 shares each. At current market values of about $400 per share, each will have made $60 million if they cashed in the same day.
The US Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Apple a patent on the "Slide to Unlock" gesture used on iOS devices. Wording in the document refers to unlocking "if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device," using certain feedback cues as necessary. Specifically, though, diagrams depict a rough version of the slidebar seen on the iOS lock screen.
(Updated to downplay Baez's role) A partial list of the people present at Sunday's private memorial for Steve Jobs has been published, says Fortune. Among the people there were Apple executives Tim Cook (CEO) and Scott Forstall (senior VP for iOS), and board members Bill Campbell and Al Gore. Former US President Bill Clinton was also in attendance; one of the people most closely connected to Jobs, though, may have been singer Joan Baez, who once dated him during the late 1970s and early '80s.
Apple's senior VP for iOS, Scott Forstall, was indirectly responsible for the leak of an iPhone 4 prototype in 2010, a new Businessweek profile suggests. A former Apple manager claims that Forstall persuaded the company's CEO at the time, Steve Jobs, to allow dozens of engineers to carry prototypes so they could do better testing of network performance and reduce dropped calls. It was one of Forstall's engineers who accidentally left an iPhone 4 in a pub, which eventually resulted in a Gizmodo hands-on piece and a high-profile criminal investigation.
During the course of today's WWDC 2011 keynote, Apple executives elaborated on a number of business milestones the company has achieved. The Mac App Store, for instance, is now claimed to be main channel for buying computer software, ahead of Best Buy, Walmart and Office Depot. The ranking does not reflect the actual popularity of Mac software versus Windows titles, the latter of which are often bought directly from publishers and developers, or through services like Steam.
Financial publication Fast Company has published a new ranking of possible replacements for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The magazine notes that even if Jobs does return from his current medical leave, the company will eventually have to find a replacement. The top potential candidate is argued to be Apple's senior VP of iPhone software, Scott Forstall. He is "young, possesses the right kind of technical knowledge and dynamism, and has become an increasingly important figure in key Apple product decisions," according to the magazine.
Both Apple and AT&T are to blame for the latter's network suffering under the weight of the iPhone, a Wired investigation suggests. Apple's part is said to stem largely from demanding unlimited Internet access for users, and being unwilling to bend on the matter, even though AT&T was unable to expand its network fast enough to accommodate the strain. Even though AT&T has asked to cooperate on fixing some problems, Apple has sometimes insisted that AT&T resolve them by itself.
The senior VP of iOS software at Apple, Scott Forstall, has joined social networking site Twitter. Though he has made no posts so far, the account has been verified, and he is currently following talk show host Conan O'Brien. Forstall is the first Apple executive known to have an account with a social network, at least one accessible to the public.
Three key Apple executives are reported to have sold large amounts of company stock over the weekend, taking advantage of record share prices. In total the group amassed over $16.5 million; the greatest profits, however, went to Scott Forstall, Apple's senior VP of iPhone software. As a result of two sell-offs on Friday, according to Form 4s filed with the SEC, the executive reaped over $12 million.
