Steven P Jobs

How does a guy who earns $1 a year consistently rank near the top of California's highest-paid chief executives? If you're Steve Jobs, head of Cupertino-based Apple Computer Inc., there are several paths to riches -- including stock options and the award of a Gulfstream jet. This year it was stock grants that put Jobs on top in The Times' annual survey of executive compensation at California's 100 largest publicly traded companies. His earnings for 2003: $74.

Steve Jobs to Michael Eisner: The gloves are off. Less than a week after Jobs' Pixar Animation Studios ended talks to extend its movie partnership with Eisner's Walt Disney Co., the tech titan teed off Wednesday on his soon-to-be former partner.

Several months before last summer's release of "Finding Nemo," the chairman of Walt Disney Co., Michael Eisner, told his board not to expect a blockbuster and suggested that such a fate might not be all that bad. Eisner said that although Pixar Animation Studios was excited about its film, he was not impressed by early cuts he'd seen, according to people familiar with the matter.

On her new CNBC talk show, Tina Brown grilled Walt Disney Co. honcho Michael Eisner two weeks ago about prospects for a continuing partnership with Steve Jobs and his Pixar Animation Studios. Staring into the camera, Eisner said: "If he's listening, Steve, let's make a deal." The Disney chief will soon get his shot to do that -- but it probably won't be fun.

Call it a non-acknowledgment acknowledgment. Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs on Thursday described reports about his company's interest in acquiring Universal Music Group as "not true." But then in the next breath he added that "some are true." Jobs addressed the issue of a possible purchase, first reported by The Times two weeks ago, in a Q&A session at Apple's shareholder meeting in Cupertino, Calif.

Apple Computer Corp. reported sharply lower fiscal second-quarter earnings Wednesday, though the news took a back seat to continued speculation about the company's interest in buying Vivendi Universal's music division. Chief Executive Steve Jobs broke his conspicuous silence with a cryptic statement that amounted to a non-denial denial of reports that Apple is mulling over a bid for Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company.

Connoisseurs of the phenomenon that is Steve Jobs must be chuckling in appreciation right now. Just when one might have reason to fear the show was running out of steam, what with Apple Computer Inc. racking up two quarterly losses in a row and sales of its core hardware products hitting various walls, Jobs appears ready to pull the sheet off another wonder. Among the burning questions is this: Will it get him on the cover of Time magazine again? And: Will there be any money in it for Apple?

Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs took a salary of $1 in the last fiscal year while other top executives were rewarded with options for 1million shares each, a major increase in compensation, according to a filing with securities regulators.

Staggered by declining sales and a financial loss in the last three months of 2000, Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday announced new high-end machines in hopes of bringing the Mac faithful back into stores. Chief Executive Steve Jobs demonstrated a skinny, 1-inch-thick titanium laptop computer with a wide screen that will sell for about $2,500, plus a lineup of faster desktop computers, including one model that will allow consumers to record their own digital videodiscs.

In what may be the most generous compensation package in business history, Apple Computer rewarded Chief Executive Steve Jobs with stock options that on paper earned him more than $200 million in the last week. Jobs has been taking an annual salary of $1 during two years of engineering a remarkable turnaround at the once-ailing computer company. Apple shares have more than tripled in 10 months and the company reported strong earnings again Wednesday, its ninth straight profitable quarter.