Apple CEO turns down $75 million

CUPERTINO, Calif., May 26 (UPI) -- U.S. technology giant Apple Inc. said Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook had turned down a stock dividend offer worth $75 million.

Market analysts Stephen Davis, a professor of corporate governance at Yale University, said the move "strikes me as another important signal Tim Cook is sending that Apple's user-friendly product image is now to be matched by a social-friendly corporate image."

The Los Angeles Times on Saturday put Cook's gesture in perspective. The CEO is given a $1.4 million per year salary.

Further, in the past two months, Cook has sold 240,000 vested Apple shares, pulling in $140 million.

Beyond that, he was given a million restricted stock units when he took over the job from the late Steve Jobs, who died of cancer in October.

Those shares, if sold today, are worth $630 million, the newspaper said.