Eric Schmidt did not accept pay for the board position -- but he did accept plenty of goodies.
Imagine buying $8,712 in Apple products. That's a lot -- even for an Apple fan -- but that's how much Eric Schmidt received. Only he didn't buy them, he received them for free for serving on Apple's Board of Directors, until he resigned last week. He also received a undisclosed $7,580 "commemorative gift" -- perhaps an unreleased product.
While a mere drop in the bucket in comparison to his net worth, the gesture is drawing mixed reaction from the public. It is important to note that Mr. Schmidt declined any income to serve on the board, and also declined the $50,000 retainer fee offered by the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.
He also is not alone -- former U.S. Vice President Al Gore took $13,161 in Apple products, while Arthur Levinson, under investigation and still on both Apple and Google's boards, took $8,923. Typically Apple gives board members 30,000 shares of the company stock, and then 10,000 shares each year. Schmidt declined this option currently worth over $5M USD initially and close to $1.7M USD a year.
Mr. Schmidt did buy 10,000 Apple shares himself in 2006 for $760,000. Mr. Schmidt practices similar discretion at Google, only accepting $1/year in pay and recently declining all stock options. However, Mr. Schmidt has approximately $4.4B USD in past lucrative options from Google and other companies he worked for.
The real issue here is that Mr. Schmidt was serving on the Apple board, that of a competitor, in the first place. There's healthy debate to be had over whether it was the responsibility of the government or the shareholders to prevent such practices. While the board didn't have ultimate control over Apple's business, it did help to steer all of Apple's business activities, and Mr. Schmidt's involvement represent a serious conflict of interest, given the companies' competition in the browser and phone markets. The SEC filing serves to reillustrate this troubling item escaped the public eye for a couple years.
"We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits." -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs
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