Congratulations to Mr. Tevanian! It's nice to see such a talented and hard working person finally profit in a substantial way from several years of dedicated service to Apple.

His action also brings in cash to Apple and reduces the "options overhang" that has troubled many analysts and investors.

Thought should be $7 million not $3.5 million.

nobody is worth that much...

Mace is right. He made 7 million in profit.
$3.5 million is the amount he paid for his own shares.

If he paid 3.5 mil, and got back 7 mil, then he in fact did make 3.5 mil. No problem there.

That seems like a very small amount for the 7 years he has put into OS X

Oh well, nice to see his hard work pay off and bring in some cash.

200,000 x $17.31 = $3.462 million
200,000 x $53.00 = $10.6 million

So, he pockets 10.6-3.462 = $7.138 million (excluding tax & brokerage).

Btw, this is not all the options he has. He has been exercising his options regularly throughout his career in Apple.

Since he held the stock for less than a year (less than a day, to be precise!), poor ol' Avie will have to pay regular income tax, at around 35%, instead of paying capital gains tax at 15%. That means a federal income tax bill of $2.5 million dollars.

That'll feed a lot of welfare brats.

Not just welfare. If you tink it was merely for education and health, think again... It is for some arms and military funding too. Besides investments in Iraq (re)constructing
Dick Cheney and mr. Army know very well what to do with these...