Apple spent $310,000 on Tim Cook’s personal security last year. That figure alone may be around 5x the median household income in the U.S., but it’s a bargain compared to the figures some tech companies spend keeping their executives safe!
Amazon and Oracle, for example, spent $1.6 million each protecting Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison. Google, meanwhile, spent $600,000 looking after CEO Sundar Pichai. All of those pale in comparison to Facebook, however — whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s security detail cost a reported $10 million.
We’ve previously noted the difference in Cook’s security expenses versus those of some of his contemporaries. In 2016, for instance, Cook cost about $209,151 in CEO security. While that was in line with CEOs of companies like Verizon and FedEx, it was considerably less than — again — the likes of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It was certainly less money than you might expect the head of one of the world’s most valuable companies to cost in security fees.
Cook’s biggest security spend was in 2015, when he cost the company $700,000 in protection fees.
Of course, what’s missing from all of this is details about the threats that CEOs face. It’s easy to assume that massive security fees is an example of companies splashing cash to keep its bosses happy. It’s true that these fees do include things like private jet travel and home security systems, but we also don’t (for good reason) hear every alarming threat that’s made to the bosses of individual companies.
Frankly, we’re just happy that Apple is spending what it needs to to keep Tim Cook out of harm’s way.
Source: Wired
