Apple directors reelected, outside proposals rejected at annual shareholder meeting

AppleInsider

Apple's board of directors were unanimously reelected to their positions at the company's annual shareholder meeting on Friday, while shareholder proposals on a variety of issues, including a mandate on diversity, were rejected.

There were a total of four shareholder proposals on the table for the meeting, including a pledge to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and to cease business in countries that commit human rights violations. None of them garnered enough support to pass.

Apple's board, however, was given a passing grade. It includes former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Chairman Arthur D. Levinson.

Chief Executive Tim Cook was present at Friday's meeting, and commented on his company's ongoing encryption battle with the FBI, saying that a tough fight with the U.S. government "doesn't scare us."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was also at the Apple annual shareholder meeting, and praised Apple for increasing diversity among its workforce and its executive team. The company also revealed that it pays women 99.6 percent the pay of men, while minorities earn 99.7 percent that of white workers.

thewhitefalcon

Jesse Jackson has no business being there. 

anantksundaram

People like Al Gore and Art Levinson have outlived their usefulness at this stage of Apple's life cycle. (Perhaps Andrea Jung could be added to that list). The company really needs to bring a younger, more global, financially-oriented (as Apple needs little or no board oversight with its product orientation) board. The recent appointment of Susan Wagner was excellent. 

cnocbui

thewhitefalcon said:

Jesse Jackson has no business being there. 

He does if he owns shares.

anantksundaram

thewhitefalcon said:

Jesse Jackson has no business being there. 

If he was a registered shareholder, he would have every right to be there, no?

linkman

AppleInsider said:

...and to cease business in countries that commit human rights violations. None of them garnered enough support to pass.

Good, because that would leave something like two countries to do business in, and those probably have <1,000 citizens.

levi

Jackson also commented on, and expressed support for Apple's fight against the gov't over encryption. 

pmz

linkman said:

AppleInsider said:

...and to cease business in countries that commit human rights violations. None of them garnered enough support to pass.

Good, because that would leave something like two countries to do business in, and those probably have <1,000 citizens.

Including the US.

pmz

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

levi

pmz said:

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

TC as usual gave a summary of business and operations for the closing year. Several questions and comments focused on business - service sales, business sales, emerging markets, China, India, and the prospect of Apple Car

levi

pmz said:

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

Also, part of the discussion on diversity centered on Apple's push into the India, China, the Middle East, Africa, South and Latin America. Argument being, Apple is a global company, and the Board and management should reflect this, and is good for business 

levi

levi said:

pmz said:

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

Also, part of the discussion on diversity centered on Apple's push into the India, China, the Middle East, Africa, South and Latin America. Argument being, Apple is a global company, and the Board and management should reflect this, and is good for business 

jungmark

How long until the FBI/ DOJ nominate its own board members to Apple?

suddenly newton

jungmark said:

How long until the FBI/ DOJ nominate its own board members to Apple?

When they control enough shares of voting stock to elect their own board members.

neutrino23

pmz said:

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

Actually, this year I though the comments/questions were fairly reasonable and well expressed. Jesse Jackson spoke well. The woman from the EFF was very supportive of Apple. Considering Apple's size, their behavior has an enormous effect on lots of people who don't own Apple products. It is reasonable for people to have concerns about Apple's public behavior. 

Angela Ahrendts spoke a little in response to a question. I think that's the first time I've heard her talk at one of these meetings. As usual, there were not a lot of specifics, but she and Tim were fairly enthusiastic about improved Enterprise and small business activity.

Revenues in India are about $1.5B per year but Tim thinks this is the very early years and the investments they make now will pay off in large measures a decade from now. He said India now looks like China ten years ago.

Other tidbits:

Most iOS developers are now in China.

I may have misunderstood this but I think Tim said that four out of five smart phones sold in China last year were iPhones.

Apple has 116,000 employees around the world. 65,000 are retail employees.

One third of Apple revenue comes from emerging markets.

Tim Cook was supported for his position by over 99% of the shareholders voting. All board members got over 95%.

Tim Cook used an iPad Pro (space grey I believe) for his prepared comments.

Most shareholder proposals got well under 10%. The one proposal for Shareholder Proxy Access got about 33% support. It might pass in a few years.

emoeller

neutrino23 said:

pmz said:

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

Actually, this year I though the comments/questions were fairly reasonable and well expressed. Jesse Jackson spoke well. The woman from the EFF was very supportive of Apple. Considering Apple's size, their behavior has an enormous effect on lots of people who don't own Apple products. It is reasonable for people to have concerns about Apple's public behavior. 

Angela Ahrendts spoke a little in response to a question. I think that's the first time I've heard her talk at one of these meetings. As usual, there were not a lot of specifics, but she and Tim were fairly enthusiastic about improved Enterprise and small business activity.

Revenues in India are about $1.5B per year but Tim thinks this is the very early years and the investments they make now will pay off in large measures a decade from now. He said India now looks like China ten years ago.

Other tidbits:

Most iOS developers are now in China.

I may have misunderstood this but I think Tim said that four out of five smart phones sold in China last year were iPhones.

Apple has 116,000 employees around the world. 65,000 are retail employees.

One third of Apple revenue comes from emerging markets.

Tim Cook was supported for his position by over 99% of the shareholders voting. All board members got over 95%.

Tim Cook used an iPad Pro (space grey I believe) for his prepared comments.

Most shareholder proposals got well under 10%. The one proposal for Shareholder Proxy Access got about 33% support. It might pass in a few years.

Thanks for the summary neutrino23, I was there also and don't recall Tim noting that four out of five smart phones in China were iPhones.  He did say that China revenue last year was $60B and growing double digits, and he noted that India is now about where China was 10 years ago (Apple did $1.5B in revenue in India last year), but that that country doesn't yet have LTE so it is difficult to sell smartphones.   That said he expects Apple to invest in India.

I've seen TC speak at several events and I thought he looked a bit tired (others noted this also).  I know he gets up early (health/fitness fanatic), but I couldn't help but think that this court order, as well as the market slump isn't weighing heavily on him these days.

maybeafan

levi said:

Also, part of the discussion on diversity centered on Apple's push into the India, China, the Middle East, Africa, South and Latin America. Argument being, Apple is a global company, and the Board and management should reflect this, and is good for business 

That is NOT what the argument was about. It was a Hispanic guy who wanted Apple's board to reflect America's diversity, not the world's. You think he really cares if Apple's board has enough Chinese directors to reflect its sales in China? Of course not. He was just an ignoramus who thinks Apple's board should fulfill some sort of quota. And you, because you can't or won't compete on merit, happen to agree. 

michael_c

levi said:

pmz said:

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

Also, part of the discussion on diversity centered on Apple's push into the India, China, the Middle East, Africa, South and Latin America. Argument being, Apple is a global company, and the Board and management should reflect this, and is good for business 

Good synopsis of the discussion. While I typically see things differently than Jesse Jackson, I thought his point was reasonable about Apple being a global company, and needs diversity so Apple will better understand the people they are serving.

SpamSandwich

levi said:

pmz said:

I like how the shareholder meeting has become just another venue for political lobbying. Diversity. Emissions. Human Rights. Can we talk business please? This is a company not a government.

Also, part of the discussion on diversity centered on Apple's push into the India, China, the Middle East, Africa, South and Latin America. Argument being, Apple is a global company, and the Board and management should reflect this, and is good for business 

Hogwash. Has the appointment of Indians to CEO positions of Google and Microsoft suddenly made both of those companies more attractive to all Indians or has it sent their respective valuations spaceward like a rocket? As far as I can tell, Microsoft is still flopping around like a fish on dry land, while Google continues to waste billions on dead end projects. Once a company has grown to massive, almost uncontrollable size, the momentum of that company is well established and it's nigh on impossible to shift that momentum.

fallenjt

thewhitefalcon said:

Jesse Jackson has no business being there. 

He owned 1 AAPL share.

anantksundaram

SpamSandwich said:

levi said:

Also, part of the discussion on diversity centered on Apple's push into the India, China, the Middle East, Africa, South and Latin America. Argument being, Apple is a global company, and the Board and management should reflect this, and is good for business 

Hogwash. Has the appointment of Indians to CEO positions of Google and Microsoft suddenly made both of those companies more attractive to all Indians or has it sent their respective valuations spaceward like a rocket? As far as I can tell, Microsoft is still flopping around like a fish on dry land, while Google continues to waste billions on dead end projects. Once a company has grown to massive, almost uncontrollable size, the momentum of that company is well established and it's nigh on impossible to shift that momentum.

Actually, MSFT is up quite substantially under Nadella. The stock was in the low 30s when he took over, now it's in the low 50s, close to a 60% gain. It has outperformed a lot of its peers. GOOG is also up under Pichai, but by much less. (However, he was appointed much more recently.)