Apple spent $700,000 last year to protect CEO Tim Cook

It’s only natural for a company to want to protect its assets, and a CEO definitely counts as an asset. That’s why it’s not all that surprising to hear that Apple spent $699,133 in 2014 to ensure that Tim Cook was safe and secure. Cook leads one of the largest and most successful companies in the world, so $700,000 isn’t actually that much when you consider that Oracle spent $1.5 to protect Larry Ellison and Amazon spent $1.6 million to protect Jeff Bezos.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is obviously important to the most valuable brand and company in the world, but the recent revelation that the technology giant spent nearly $700,000 for his personal safety and security in 2014 is getting a lot of attention. However, the eye-grabbing figure may not be all that noteworthy when placed in proper context. The money spent on Cook’s security last year was spotted by Patently Apple in Apple’s Schedule 14A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 10. In that form was this detail for $774,176 in “All Other Compensation” for Cook in 2014: “This amount represents: (i) the Company’s contributions to Mr. Cook’s account under its 401(k) plan in the amount of $15,600; (ii) Company-paid term life insurance premiums in the amount of $2,520; (iii) vacation cash-out in the amount of $56,923; and (iv) security expenses in the amount of $699,133.”