NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook's 2012 compensation package of $4.17 million (2.58 million pounds) is a huge cut on paper for the top executive of the most valuable U.S. corporation, after a 2011 package fattened by more than $376 million (233 million pounds) in long-term stock awards.
Cook received the largest single pay package awarded to a company CEO in about a decade when he replaced Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) co-founder Steve Jobs in August last year, shortly before the Silicon Valley legend's death in October 2011.
The maker of the iPhone and iPad made the 2012 compensation disclosures in a regulatory filing on Thursday. Cook, 52, has been with Apple since 1998.
Virtually all of Cook's $376 million stock bonus in 2011 was in awards that vest in two chunks - one in 2016 and the other in 2021. This structure was intended to keep Jobs' longtime lieutenant at the helm for many years, as the value of the stock will depend on how well the company is doing in 2016 and 2021.
Cook, who is credited with masterminding a sprawling but efficient Asian supply chain, has generally received high marks for his first year for shepherding several successful gadget launches, including the iPhone 5.
But he was forced to make a public apology in September after the company launched a mapping service application riddled with glaring geographical errors. The Maps app fiasco contributed to the departure of fellow Apple veteran and software chief Scott Forstall.
In addition, some analysts questioned whether Cook, whose only major new product since taking the helm was a smaller version of the iPad that Jobs propelled into the mainstream in 2010, has the vision to produce the next big product category and sustain historically stellar growth for Apple as global mobile competition intensifies.
"The jury is still out in terms of the job he is doing," said fund manager Tim Ghriskey, whose Solaris Group counts Apple stock as the biggest holding among the approximately $2 billion it manages.
But he added that the company's long-term prospects look strong, particularly if it rolls out oft-rumoured television products in the next few years.
As of Thursday's close, Apple shares were almost 37 percent higher than when Cook became CEO 16 months ago. However, since a record-high close of $702.10 on September 19, the stock has fallen almost 27 percent.
Ghriskey said Wall Street remained nervous about the growing popularity of Google Inc (NasdaqGS: GOOG - news) 's Android phone software, used by global smartphone leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and potential margin pressure from that intensifying competition.
In terms of base salary, Cook actually received a 50 percent increase to $1.4 million for 2012, and the same 200 percent non-equity bonus other top Apple executives like CFO Peter Oppenheimer earned, Apple said in the Thursday filing ahead of a February 27 shareholders' meeting.
Cook's 2012 package includes a nonequity bonus of $2.8 million.
Despite the increase, Apple said Cook's target annual cash compensation is "significantly below the median annual cash compensation level for CEOs at peer companies." It also said that Cook will not receive any stock awards for 2012.
Cook's latest compensation package also pales in comparison to his package in 2010, when he was chief operating officer. That package was 14 times higher.
A company spokesman would not comment beyond the filing.
Jobs famously received $1 a year in salary in the three years before he stepped down, though in 2000 he too received a stock option that analysts say was valued at almost $600 million at the time.
Looking beyond Apple, Yahoo Inc (NasdaqGS: YHOO - news) 's CEO, Marissa Mayer, a former Google Inc high-flyer hired this year to try to turn around the struggling Internet icon, won a pay package worth more than $70 million. Despite her lack of a track record as CEO and Yahoo's tiny size in comparison, her basic pay is comparable to Cook's, with about $1 million in annual salary and up to $2 million in an annual bonus.
Oracle Corp's Larry Ellison, one of the most highly paid U.S. chief executives - and also the world's sixth-richest man, according to Forbes - received total compensation for the year ended May 31, 2012, of $96.2 million - almost all of it in stock options. That compared with $77.6 million in 2011.
According to a study of the Fortune 500 conducted by Forbes this year, CEOs were paid a base salary of $1.1 million in 2011 on average, with the mean annual bonus at $2.4 million and average total compensation - including stock awards - at around $17 million.
Apple shares closed up 0.4 percent at $515.06 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew and Liana Baker in New York, Jim Finkle and Tim McLaughlin in Boston and Edwin Chan in San Francisco; editing by Kenneth Barry and Matthew Lewis)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-ceo-2012-pay-drop-151057112.html
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In this day and age where information is instantly accessible and communication is made simpler through technology, your business needs to adapt accordingly by upgrading your landline to a business phone system. With features like fax messaging through the web, call waiting, call forwarding and so much more, business phones are definitely the way to go. If you already have a fax machine, you may think that it?s impractical to upgrade when the old machine still works. In fact, most bills are still paid via the use of a fax machine. The thing is, you may be limiting yourself to opportunities for increased revenue and strengthening your network between you and your clients, customers and even your employees. With the technology that Internet fax messaging offers, you may discover new ways to improve and uplift your business!
Changemakrs, a platform for sharing inspiration built by an ex-Facebooker, is tapping into the Christmas spirit with a version of the site that lets anyone share holiday quotes. If you sign into the site, Changemakrs will automatically add holiday quotes to the homepage, using some natural-language processing algorithms that categorize the quotes. They also do quality filtering through internal user rankings. This holiday version of the site was hacked together in a few hours. The site has picked up holiday quotes from Bon Jovi, the movies “Miracle on 34th Street,” and “Elf,” and Charles Dickens. Changemakrs is a platform where anyone can post and share inspirational quotes. It was born out of some experimentation by a former Facebook business development manager Sacha Tueni and his co-founder Mathias Wagner. After working on a Twitter client (yes, a Twitter client) for a couple of months, they built a tribute site to Steve Jobs that overlaid his best advice on top of stark, black-and-white photos of him. The barebones site quickly went viral, accumulating 3 million pageviews in about 48 hours. They then repeated that approach with many other famous figures like Albert Einstein and Lady Gaga, with similar results. They then turned it into an open site where anyone could share or accumulate bits and pieces of aspirational wisdom. The site came out of beta earlier this month. Yes, it is a bit of a brain-dead, simple concept, and strangely, web-focused in a mobile-first world. But the team says that while there are plenty of quote sites across the web, these competitors are outdated with Craigslist-era design. Plus, they?re not designed to be particularly social or viral. Tueni, who used to work at Facebook, has been involved in social change-oriented projects before. Before he joined Facebook, he built a mobile service that let Lebanese voters report election irregularities with their feature phones. Changemakrs is currently bootstrapped for now.
I have been traveling almost non-stop the past few months and although I really love what I?m doing, being a travel junkie and all, it does get to you after a while. Constantly being on the road can be tiring. 
I would be staycationing with a group of travelers; L of Anny?s Chocolate Skies, D of Tracking Treasures, C of Adventurous Feet, E of The Shade of Grey and J of The Backpack Chronicles. Relaxing with like-minded individuals would surely double the fun. 
I was floored the moment we opened the door to the roof, it was as if I entered a warp zone into Santorini. Everything was painted in white; the floor, the trellises, the columns. The whites were offset by posh dark brown outdoor furniture which contrasts nicely with the theme. Potted palm trees and the panoramic view of the bay completed the illusion of Greece.
At the center of the roof deck sits an infinity pool that looks out over the glimmering sea and the glittering lights of the city. 
After watching the weekend fireworks lit the night sky, countless stories, non-stop picture taking of the food and being treated to one of the best dinner I?ve ever had. It was time to bed down for the night.
We were given rooms facing the city and the MOA Eye is clearly framed on the window. The room is spacious; two queen-sized beds, a vanity table and a closet leave more than enough space to run around in. And although the bed looks tempting, my favorite spot is the bay window.
Most guests, especially the ladies, are particular when it comes to the toilet and bath and Microtel?s own wouldn?t disappoint. The fittings are modern, hot water is available and most importantly it is very very clean. The one thing I particularly like about it is their rain-type shower. 
I was planning on shooting the sunrise the next day but I guess Microtel?s comfort got the best of me. I overslept and got zero sunrise photos from the roof deck. Well, I guess I really got what I came here for, it is a staycation after all.
Microtel Mall of Asia 
Hamas? ?terror wing? Alqassam Brigades?has a following of over 28,000 on Twitter.?Alqassam Brigades only follows seven back. One ?news organization? they follow back is Al Jazeera ? a Muslim propaganda news network. That doesn?t come as much of a surprise. But guess who else Alqassam Brigades, none other than corrupt ?news? outfit CNN. I guess this explains why they doctored a video of ?Pallywood? of Palestinians faking injuries go gain sympathy. The part CNN cut out was then the same Palestinian ?victim? got up and walked around after performing his Oscar worthy performance in front of cameras to use a propaganda against the Jews.
