A Look at Apple’s 10-K

Michelle Leder reads Apple’s 10-K so we don’t have to:

When Apple (AAPL) came out with its Iphone at the end of June, there was a flurry of activity to take it apart. That’s kind of the way I feel about the 10-K they filed late yesterday. There were so many interesting disclosures in the 170-page filing, that it’s hard to know where to begin. The filing also included the compensation and perks information that’s more commonly found in the proxy.
Yes, Steve Jobs still made a single buck last year, but that’s still more than Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt made for serving as a director at Apple. As the filing notes, “Upon his initial appointment to the Board on August 29, 2006, Dr. Schmidt declined the annual retainer fee and the automatic stock option grant to purchase 30,000 shares to which new directors are entitled under the Director Plan. Instead, Dr. Schmidt purchased 10,000 shares of the Company’s common stock on the open market.”
Former Vice President Al Gore, who earlier this week became a partner at VC firm Kleiner Perkins, was the lowest paid director (next to Schmidt) but was the biggest beneficiary of the free computer equipment that Apple gives to its directors. Gore received $15,245 worth of Apple swag. Directors are eligible to receive two free computer systems a year, but clearly this includes some extra bells and whistles.
One of Apple’s risk factors is its ties to a single carrier for the Iphone. In the US, that’s AT&T (T), which has faced criticism for its slow network, but the company also lists 02, T-Mobile and Orange as well. In that same risk factor, Apple notes that because these agreements “require each carrier to make revenue-generating payments” to Apple, the frenzy to unlock the Iphone “could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s future financial condition and operating results” which is why Apple keeps on coming up with new ways to prevent that from happening.
Finally, there were some interesting details about the free Iphones, which Apple employees had been rumored to receive. According to the K, each of Apple’s 21,600 employees, including the named executives received a free Iphone, which the company then grossed-up for taxes. Judging by one of the footnotes to the summary comp chart, some employees received a $250 gross-up and others received a $379 gross-up, which presumably was the difference between the 4 and 8-gig models. The only employee who didn’t get the free Iphone appears to be Steve Jobs, who the filing notes did not get a gross up for the Iphone, or, for anything else.

Posted by on November 19th, 2007 at 9:47 am


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