Jobs keeps his salary

APPLE Messiah Steve Jobs didn't have to take a pay cut this year, despite the fact the fruit themed outfit's stock price has fallen dramatically.

Jobs famously takes home a $1 for all his work making Apple the proprietary giant that it has become. Of course he is paid in shares and perks, but according to regulatory filings the loss of shares knocked half a billion dollars off the value of his personal holdings in the company.

Jobs, 53, who holds 5.5 million shares of Apple's stock, hasn't sold any of his shares since rejoining the company in 1997.

Apple shares have lost more than half their value since the end of 2007. In those days Jobs' holdings were worth more than $US1 billion. Now his stake is worth around $US500 million.

Not that we think he will be asking for a rise in his salary. Forbes magazine earlier this year had his net worth pegged at $5.7 billion and ranking him 61st on the publication's list of the richest Americans.

Some of this is thanks to the 138 million shares he has in another Mickey Mouse outfit, Walt Disney, which are worth $3.2 billion.

He got that Disney stake through a brilliant deal in which he sold Pixar Animation Studios, a company he bought from George Lucas for just $US10 million in 1986. µ

L'Inq
AP