Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is due to receive annual compensation worth $378 million, boosted by restricted stock awards that are payable over the coming decade.

The total includes $376.2 million in shares that will vest starting in five years, Cupertino, California-based Apple said Monday in a proxy filing to shareholders. Cook’s base salary was $900,000 in 2011. The company, which plans to hold its annual shareholder meeting on Feb. 23, had previously disclosed that Cook received 1 million restricted shares in August.

Apple’s board, now led by Chairman Art Levinson, offered the stock options to Cook to help ensure that he doesn’t pursue other job prospects. “No formula or peer group benchmark” was used to calculate the amount, the company said in the filing. Steve Jobs, who passed the reins to Cook before his death in October, had given input about the pay package.

Cook isn’t the only executive who has received millions of dollars worth of stock option grants.

In November, software executive Scott Forstall, hardware manager Bob Mansfield, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, marketing chief Phil Schiller, General Counsel Bruce Sewell and operation manager Jeff Williams each received 150,000 restricted shares, which vest between 2013 and 2016, according to regulatory filings. Eddy Cue, who handles Internet software, received 100,000 shares after having received another 100,000 when he was promoted to senior vice president last year.

Jobs had compensation of $1 every year when he was CEO, though he owned 5.5 million shares at the time of his death. The Apple co-founder took three medical leaves before stepping down as CEO in August, with Cook filling in for him each time.

Apple shares were little changed in today’s trading at $421.73. The stock climbed 26 percent in 2011, marking its third straight annual gain. Apple temporarily became the biggest company in the world by market value last year, before slipping back behind Exxon Mobil Corp. 

(Bloomberg)