Apple vs. Meta: iPhone Maker Gives up to $180,000 Bonuses to Keep Talent Away From Facebook

Apple has given some large, unique stock bonuses to some engineers to try and keep talent in the company as employees defect to other tech rivals, Yahoo reported Tuesday (Dec. 28).

The company has been losing people to rivals like Facebook’s parent company, Meta. Last week, Apple told some engineers that there were out-of-cycle bonuses coming as restricted stock units, with the shares vesting over four years, giving a motive to stay with the tech giant.

The bonuses were a surprise to those who benefited, and they ranged from $50,000 to as much as $180,000, per Yahoo. Many of the engineers who were eligible for bonuses received them in the amounts of $80,000, $100,000 or $120,000 in shares.

The perks were presented as a way for the companies to reward good performers, although the report says the payouts aren’t part of the usual company compensation packages.

Yahoo notes that the program has been an irritant to some engineers, who did not get the shares and who feel the selection was subjective. Some of the bonuses reportedly equaled the stock grant given annually to some engineering managers.

Apple is currently facing a threat in hiring from Meta, which has hired around 100 engineers in the past few months from the iPhone maker.

However, that has not been a one-way road — Apple has also hired away several Meta employees. The companies are probably going to end up rivals in things like virtual reality headsets and smartwatches, as both of them have planned big hardware releases soon.

Meta has reportedly been working on more efforts to poach engineering talent, putting forth big salary raises as it tries to focus its efforts on the metaverse.

PYMNTS reports that Apple was also recently ordered to let dating apps accept non-Apple payment methods in the Netherlands. The decision comes after an investigation in which Match Group complained about the problem.

See also: Apple Ordered to Open Payment Gates on Dutch Dating Apps

Apple has two months to fix the issue, or else it will face a $5.6 million weekly fine of up to $56 million.

Martijn Snoep, chairman for the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, said app providers were “dependent” on Apple, which had been using its dominant position in the industry to take advantage of that dependency.