Apple gives engineers $180,000 Christmas bonus to prevent them from defecting to Facebook and other rivals

Apple inc. has given it's engineers a rare $180,000 Christmas bonus to stop them from joining rivals Meta (parent company of Facebook) and other IT rivals .

Apple gave its engineers working in silicon design, hardware and select software and operations stock bonuses starting at $50,000 to as much as $180,000.

The shares which vest over four years, are an incentive to stay at Apple  according to a report by Bloomberg.

Many of the engineers received amounts of roughly $80,000, $100,000 or $120,000 in shares, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Although Apple and Meta may seem like different businesses, they are both working to make waves in the virtual and augmented reality space - pitting the two powerhouses against each other.

In the last few months, Meta has hired about 100 engineers from Apple 

However, not all of Apple's engineers received the bonuses and those left out are annoyed, saying 'the selection process is arbitrary,' according to Bloomberg.

The sources told Bloomberg it was an 'atypical and surprisingly timed' bonus given to about 10 percent to 20 percent of engineers in applicable divisions.

Though Meta is a social media company and Apple a tehnology hardware production company, both companies are investing heavily into the virtual reality and augmented cyber world.