Tim Cook named highest paid executive

Tim Cook has been named the highest paid chief executive in US. Cook beat out business world heavy hitters like Larry Ellison and Rupert Murdoch to grab the title.

According to CNBC, Cook made $95m since taking over Apple 18 month ago. He reportedly made over $20m more than his closet competing executive Oracle's Ellison.

It's interesting to note that the wealthiest chief executive's came from technology companies. Both Cook and Ellison made their fortunes working for companies based out of Silicon Valley.

Each executive also has connections to Steve Jobs. Cook took over the reigns at Apple when Jobs' health began to decline, while Ellison has long counted the Apple founder among his closest friends.

Both Ellison and Cook have had a news making year in 2012. Cook's Apple has been fighting competitors in intellectual property lawsuits for the past year. Ellison has also had his fair share of legal battles. His company, Oracle, lost a long fought patent battle with Google over the Android OS.

Cook's big salary may have been worth it. Apple recently reported that its stock prices eclipsed $700 per share. The uptick in share prices was attributed to the release of the iPhone 5. 

Ellison and Oracle, meanwhile, have had a hard time adapting to the coming storm of cloud computing in the IT world.

21 Nov 2012