In order to prevent opponents from poaching people, Apple issued up to $180,000 in stock bonuses to retain talents

Apple is reportedly paying stock dividends to some engineers to prevent them from jumping ship to companies like Meta (formerly Facebook).

Apple issued a notice last week to senior engineers in wafer design, hardware, software and operations that they would receive an "unusual and substantial" stock dividend of $50,000 to $180,000.

Most engineers received stock worth $80,000 to $120,000, a stock dividend paid in the form of restricted stock units. As long as the employees who receive the dividend continue to stay at Apple and do not jump to other companies, then the dividend can be gradually realized within four years.

Apple's normal compensation package includes base salary, stock units, and cash bonuses, but does not include this stock dividend. Apple sometimes gives extra cash bonuses to employees, but the latest stock bonus is unusual in scale, and the company's choice to pay this dividend at this time is surprising, according to sources familiar with the situation. In the applicable sector, about 10 to 20 percent of engineers receive this award.

Apple told managers they could pay engineers the stock dividend as a reward for outperformers, most likely to prevent companies like Meta from poaching their employees. In recent months, Meta has hired about 100 engineers from Apple. However, Apple has also poached some employees from Meta.

Meta is recruiting talent from Apple's augmented reality, artificial intelligence and engineering divisions, which plans to launch a smartwatch product that competes directly with the Apple Watch in the near future. In addition, when Apple rolls out its planned AR/VR (augmented reality/virtual reality) headsets, the company will compete with Meta's Oculus virtual reality headsets.

Source: Sina Technology