{"id":366785,"date":"2010-02-26T16:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T21:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theappleblog.com\/?p=41561"},"modified":"2010-02-26T16:00:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T21:00:33","slug":"apple-shareholder%e2%80%99s-meeting-roundup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/366785","title":{"rendered":"Apple Shareholder\u2019s Meeting Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday Apple held its annual shareholder\u2019s meeting at its Cupertino headquarters. All the top brass were there to answer questions from the men and women to whom, let\u2019s face it, they must eventually answer. Of course, that didn\u2019t stop Steve Jobs from being his usual tactless self, quipping during a lengthy comment from one shareholder, \u201cDo you have a question<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of information to digest, so I\u2019ve condensed the juiciest morsels into what I hope is a more accessible short-form. Here goes!<\/p>\n

All seven board members were re-elected; there was an advisory vote on executive compensation and Apple\u2019s public accounting firm was chosen (it\u2019s Ernst & Young, by the way.)\u00a0Votes also were cast on two shareholder proposals. The first called for a published \u201csustainability report\u201d detailing the company\u2019s environmental policies and its contingency planning in the face of climate change. The second proposal was for the creation of a second board of directors, tasked with overseeing Apple\u2019s environmental policies and business strategy in the face of climate change. The board felt they were already doing a fine job in both these areas, and recommended voting against the new proposals. Votes were counted and, unsurprisingly, neither proposal was successful. <\/span><\/p>\n

Green<\/h3>\n

According to Macworld, Jobs claimed that Apple is the first company to work directly with suppliers on issues ranging from environmental impact to worker protection and education. Macworld\u2019s Dan Frakes writes<\/a>;<\/p>\n

\n

Taking a jab at other companies, as well as organizations such as Greenpeace, [Jobs] noted that \u201cother companies just make promises\u201d and attend conferences and events to \u201cschmooze with [environmental groups], but the work ain\u2019t getting done,\u201d whereas Apple is actually taking steps to improve the company\u2019s real-world green credentials and treatment of workers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jobs also noted that the smaller packaging used across Apple\u2019s product line has reduced the number of annual cargo flights \u201cby the hundreds\u201d;<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the right thing to do from an environmental point of view; it\u2019s the right thing to do from a business point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Money<\/h3>\n

In its first quarter 2010 investor conference call<\/a>, Apple announced it had $39.8 billion in the bank at the end of December 2009. The question now<\/em> is, what on earth should it\u00a0do<\/em> with it? Spend it? Save it for the next recession? Perhaps pay dividends to shareholders — something BusinessWeek says<\/a> the company has not done since 1995? Jobs said;<\/p>\n

\n

We know if we need to acquire something \u2013 a piece of the puzzle to make something big and bold \u2013 we can write a check for it and not borrow a lot of money and put our whole company at risk. The cash in the bank gives us tremendous security and flexibility.<\/p>\n

You never know what opportunities are going to be around the next corner. We are a large enough business now that, in order to really move the needle, we have to be thinking pretty bold \u2013 pretty large.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

New Role<\/h3>\n

On the matter of Apple\u2019s new role as a \u2018mobile devices\u2019 company (first announced by Jobs in January and reiterated by Tim Cook in last month\u2019s earnings call) Jobs said;<\/p>\n

\n

This is not something that we\u2019re ordaining from the top. This is something our customers are saying with their dollars, if you just look at the products that we\u2019re selling. They\u2019re telling us what they think is important and we\u2019re reflecting that.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But specifically, what does this mean about the future of Apple\u2019s desktop Macs, the iMac and Mac Pro?\u00a0\u201cWe love desktop computers,\u201d El Jobso assured the shareholders, \u201cAnd plan to continue making them.” So, that’s alright then.<\/p>\n

Asia<\/h3>\n

When asked about Apple\u2019s efforts to increase international sales, Jobs turned to (VP of Retail) Ron Johnson, who announced that Apple is looking to open 24 more stores in China to join the existing store in Beijing. This is to be expected, given how important (and lucrative) China is to Apple. DigitalDaily\u2019s John Paczkowski writes<\/a>, “Mac sales in China increased nearly 100 percent year over year in the first financial quarter of 2010… while iPhone sales [are] ramping up.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Apple's Beijing Store<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Beyond the Mac, Paczkowski\u00a0quotes Tim Cook on Apple’s overall revenue in that market;<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c\u2026if you look at greater China last quarter, which is China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, our revenues tripled year-over-year\u2026 We have a tremendous focus on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I guess it\u2019s only right China should get a little Apple-love\u2026 after all, they make<\/em> most of Apple\u2019s gear in the first place!<\/p>\n

Stability<\/h3>\n

Finally, there was a moment of fun, Jobs-style; a shareholder wanted to know of Jobs, \u201cWhat keeps you up at night?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShareholder meetings,\u201d Jobs immediately shot back, before getting very serious and adding, thoughtfully;<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cApple requires stability in the world. People aren\u2019t going to worry about which laptop to buy if they can\u2019t afford dinner, can\u2019t afford to send their kids to school, can\u2019t afford textbooks. There are things much bigger than us that are out of our control. So we try to just do the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bravo, Steve. And bravo, Apple.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday Apple held its annual shareholder\u2019s meeting at its Cupertino headquarters. All the top brass were there to answer questions from the men and women to whom, let\u2019s face it, they must eventually answer. Of course, that didn\u2019t stop Steve Jobs from being his usual tactless self, quipping during a lengthy comment from one shareholder, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}