Apple boss Tim Cook paid $9.22 million last year

Apple chief executive Tim Cook received compensation valued at $9.22 million last year, more than double his pay in 2013, as optimism for new products pushed the iPhone maker's stock to a record.

The company also said Mickey Drexler, chief executive and chairman of J. Crew, will retire from Apple's board, where he's served as a director since 1999. A replacement wasn't named.

Mr Cook’s package includes salary of $1.75 million and $6.7 million in non-equity incentive compensation for the fiscal year that ended in September.

Apple’s boss was granted a pay package valued at $4.25 million in 2013.

Confidence in Apple has grown since Mr Cook unveiled larger-screened iPhones in September and slimmer, faster iPad tablets in October. The company’s stock rose as high as $119.75 in November, sending its market capitalization to more than $700 billion, a milestone that no other US company has reached.

Mr Cook also rolled out a mobile-payment system called Apple Pay, and this year will debut the company’s first smartwatch. Apple in October forecast that revenue in the final three months of 2014 would be $63.5 billion to $66.5 billion. That would exceed Apple’s holiday sales of $57.6 billion for the end of 2013.

The company will report first-quarter earnings on January 27th.

Apple finished fiscal 2014 posting full-year net income of $39.5 billion, an increase from $37 billion in 2013.

Mr Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, was named chief executive in August 2011 to succeed co-founder Steve Jobs, who died later that year.

He received compensation in 2011 of $378 million, one of the biggest pay packages on record, boosted by $376.2 million in stock awards that he’ll get over a decade. His compensation last year included security expenses of $699,133, the first time Apple disclosed those type of costs for Mr Cook.

Bloomberg