Apple grants top execs $60M retention stock bonuses through 2016

The filings detail grants of 150,000 shares for each of six senior vice president falling under the SEC's definition of directors, officers, and principal stockholders: general counsel Bruce Sewell; senior vice president of Operations Jeffrey Williams; worldwide product marketing SVP Philip Schiller; chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer; hardware engineering SVP Robert Mansfield; and iOS software SVP Scott Forstall.

At current market prices, 150,000 shares would be worth $60 million, but grants don't begin to vest until June of 2013, and the second half of the grant isn't available until March 2016, contingent upon the executives staying with Apple over the next half decade.

A smaller grant for 100,000 shares was awarded recently promoted Eduardo "Eddy" Cue, who was just awarded 100,000 shares at his promotion in September to SVP of Internet Software and Services, which put him in charge of the iTunes App Store, iAd, iBooks and iCloud services.

In August, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook was awarded a grant of a million shares of restricted stock that only begin to vest in 2016 and continue through 2021, similarly providing both an incentive to stay at Apple and a public assurance that Apple's leadership won't abandon the company to pursue other goals.