Steve Jobs mentioned his firm belief in Tim Cook that he'll be able to handle the duties of CEO just fine when he wrote his resignation letter to Apple's board this week.  Now it appears Apple's board feels the same way about their new CEO, as they presented Cook with a tidy bonus in an SEC filing.  What's the bonus, you ask?  Oh, just 1 million restricted shares of Apple stock!

In the filing that was posted to Apple's investor site today, the company states that Cook has been given 1 million restricted shares of Apple stock.  The catch though is that half will be vested in five years.  The rest gets vested in 2021, so long that Cook is still with Apple:

In connection with Mr. Cook's appointment as chief executive officer, the board awarded Mr. Cook 1,000,000 restricted stock units.  Fifty percent of the restricted stock units are scheduled to vest on each of August 24, 2016 and August 24, 2021, subject to Mr. Cook's continued employment with Apple through each such date.

Granted, while no one knows what the future holds, or where Apple's stock price will be at the time, but given Apple's stock price at close today, that would result in a $383 million gift to the new CEO.  For comparison's sake, Cook's salary last year was $800,000, which included a $5 million bonus and $52 million in company stock. 

Also included in the filing were notes of the official changeover of Cook replacing Steve Jobs as CEO, and it was dated with today's date.

via CNET

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(Image courtesy of Cult of Mac)