Like many of his peers, Stringer could afford to leave or retire. The company had begun granting the fifty-two-year-old shares in Apple when its stock price was about $1, a figure that had appreciated over the years, particularly under Cook, to more than $133. The company’s success had made him a multimillionaire, with homes in the Bay Area, on Lake Tahoe, and in southern California. He could “vest in peace,” as they said at Apple, a joking reference to the growing number of early retirees who colleagues called VIPs.
