Still # 1: Jobs Retains Crown of Biggest-Earning CEO


Bill Gates must be seriously underpaid.

After all, he must just slap down a copy of the Seattle Times at board meetings and ask how a $6.75 billion company manages to pay its iCEO more than the Chairman and Chief Software Architect of the World's Greatest Monopoly.

CEOs, says a Bloomberg report, earn a staggering average of $US12 million per annum.

Research which looks at 3 years of CEOs' earnings across 243 firms with revenues over $5 billion reveals Apple's own Steve Jobs earned $219 million per annum.

In a harsh criticism of Jobs, the author writes, "Jobs also wins my Most-Ludicrous-Pay-Package trophy, which isn't awarded every year.

Analysis: As Steve said at a shareholders meeting many moons ago, he could always leave, if the shareholders want. Then we could get someone really talented to run Cupertino. Like, er, Gil Amelio? Or there are a lot of those Enron guys looking for work. The ones that aren't in jail, that is.

Fact is, all Apple CEOs - Mike Scott excluded - have milked the company to some extent or another. Their compensation payouts after their early dismissal for complete incompetence must have cushioned the blow their fragile egos felt when they were tossed out on their ears for building too many Performas. Jobs may be - when actually cashes in some options - richly rewarded. But at least he's sitting on a strong model line-up, a tightly-focussed software group, a brilliant OS which is gathering more admirers hourly, and a treasure trove of cash put aside for a rainy day. And, after all, Apple is really more like a personal fiefdom than a public company. And it's not as if a gun's being held to anyone's head forcing them to buy Apple shares at $20 a pop, now is there?