Stand-in Apple chief paid $59m

Cupertino: Apple chief operating officer Timothy Cook received total compensation of $59.1m (€44.25m) in fiscal 2010, because of bonuses for running day-to-day operations during chief executive Steve Jobs’s medical leave.

Cook was given a $5m bonus and $52.3m in stock awards for the year ended September 2010, Apple said in a regulatory filing. Cook’s total compensation was up from $1.64m in 2009, while his salary remained at about $800,000.

Cook, 50, took over daily management when Jobs went on a nearly six-month medical leave to have a liver transplant in 2009. Cook and his team were praised by investors and analysts for running the company smoothly during Jobs’s absence.

Apple said Cook received the special bonus and stock in recognition of “his outstanding performance” during that period.

Jobs collected $1 last year, his salary since returning to Apple in 1997. He holds about 5.5 million shares in the company.