Jan 12
Apple Computer’s bet on its founder and two-time chief executive Steve Jobs has paid off for investors. Now it is about to pay off for Jobs. Jobs exchanged worthless options on a split-adjusted 55 million shares for 10 million shares of restricted stock three years ago. The shares, Jobs’s entire stake in Apple, are right now valued at $808.6 million.
“It’s a bargain,” said Chuck Jones, a fund manager at Atlantic Trust Stein Roe in San Francisco. “I’d gladly pay him another $808.6 million to have him create another $65 billion in market cap.”
Shares of Apple, based in Cupertino, California, rose $2.88 to a record $83.74 in trading Wednesday afternoon. An analyst at UBS Securities raised his target for the shares to $100 from $86.
