Apple has reportedly taken up the strategy of massive bonuses in the talent war with Meta. To retain its top engineers, the Cupertino company has rewarded some of them with stock bonuses that vest after four years as an incentive for them to stay, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
The out-of-cycle bonuses apparently came as a surprise to high-performing engineers who received them, given by managers. The bonuses reportedly range from US$50,000 (~RM210,000) to as much as US$180,000 (~RM760,000) for some, though the incentive isn’t made public.
The parent company of Instagram and Facebook, Meta, has hired away 100 engineers from Apple this year while Gurman earlier this month has noted that Meta’s head of augmented reality communications, Andrea Schubert has been poached by Apple. The two tech giants have become rivals in the AR and VR space as both companies plan to release hardware products in the near future.
To the annoyance of engineers who were left out, it’s said that only 10% to 20% of engineers were lucky enough to be selected, with the value of some of the bonuses equalling the annual stock grant given to some engineering managers. The value of the shares is predicted to rise as Apple stock is up 36% this year, inching close to a US$3 trillion (~RM12.5 trillion) market cap.
(Source: Bloomberg.)
