(Bloomberg) Apple Inc surprisingly issues massive stock bonuses to some engineers in a bid to retain talent, looking to prevent defections to tech rivals such as Facebook parent firm Meta Platforms Inc.
Last week, the iPhone maker informed some engineers in silicon design, hardware, and some software and operations group of the out-of-cycle bonuses being given as restricted stock units.
The stocks vest over four years, presenting an incentive for the engineers to stay at the company.
The bonuses range from nearly $50,000 to $180,000 in some instances. Many of the engineers got amounts of almost $80,000, $100,000 to $120,000 in shares.
Apple is taking on other companies in Silicon Valley, with Meta emerging as a key threat in the fight for talented engineers. Meta recruited nearly 100 engineers from Apple in the last few months as Apple lured some key employees from Meta.
The two companies are becoming fierce rivals in augmented-and virtual-reality headsets and smartwatches, both set to release major hardware in the next two years.
AAPL up +0.095%, Pre-market trading.
