A peek inside Apple's shareholders meeting
The press was barred from bringing laptops, iPhones or any other communication devices into the Apple (AAPL) shareholders meeting that began at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST) Wednesday — much to the chagrin of CNBC's Jim Goldman, who had advertised his plans to live blog it.
But at least a couple members of Investor Village's AAPL Sanity board (registration required) seem to have made it in with wireless handhelds and have been posting what appear to be dispatches from inside Apple's Town Hall meeting room.
Cheddarmuff and idannyb's reports are pasted below the fold.
Here's what they filed (all times EST):
12:04 Cheddarmuff: Just waiting to go in to the meeting. Hanging out with idannyb in the hall. Another solid apple shareholder.
No sign of Goldman yet… more to come later.
12:21 idannyb: Cheddarmuff and I are in the meeting now … Music playing and shareholders filing in. Reuters cornered us to ask a few questions. Apple rep tried to give the reporter the bums rush.
12:46 Cheddarmuff: They separated the media from the shareholders. Not sure who we will and won't see at this point.
Agenda
1 welcome and intro's
2 admin (quorum, etc)
3 present board nominees
4 stmts to shareholders and presentation of shareholder proposals
5 other
6 vote
7 q and a
Mgmt team just came in. Phil, johnny, tim
Gore is here.
12:51 Cheddarmuff: Andrea Jung from Avon is here
Looks like most of the mgmt team is here (no Steve of course).
About to begin.
12:54 idannyb: The BOD have taken seats
Gore and Andre Jung (Avon) + full Apple ex mgmt team (sans SJ) -TC, PO, jonny Ive, Ron J., Phil S.
TC….
Starting intros
12:54 Cheddarmuff: Tim talking
Dan cooperman general counsel.
Whole board is here. Tim said no jobs due to medical leave.
1:05 Cheddarmuff:Â "I am not a crook " Shelton is not a fan of al gore. Already some drama and comedy (cracking jokes about this being like the academy awards…board election)
1:08 idannyb: Environmental activist now railing about Apple environmental sustainability. Calling out Gore
1:10 Cheddarmuff: Talking about political spending proposal. UAW rep talking
Hp, dell are better than apple at disclosing information.
1:21 Cheddarmuff: Starting to interesting…I like Sheldon, keeps it interesting. Just called the people proposing socialists.
Now talking about climate change.
There was one attempt to talk about jobs health that was shot down quick. Bet there will be more in the Q&A
1:23 idannyb: AFLCIO made a speech on universal health care … Tried to bring up SJ health. Cooperman cut him off
Another shareholder railed over "socialist" AFLCIO… Used profanity and then left the mtg.
Another environment activist took tv mike blasted Gore… Wants AAPL to get greener
1:32 Cheddarmuff: About to move toward q and a. Should be interesting.
1:40 idannyb: Proxy stuff over
TC PO and DC now on stage
Apple has increase rev 4xs in 4 yrs
$8 billio to $32 billion… Income growth even better
Mac and iPod share growing
iPhone 13.7 million iphone's in 2008
Macbooks very green
iTunes team sold more of something than Walmart
iPhone in 70 countries
App Store success is staggering
Retail opened a store per week
Best experience
Top notebook provider to education in US
T Cook is on a roll!
1:44 idannyb: AFLCIO hitting hard on SJ health
Art Levenson responding.. Nothing new disclosed
We have met all disclosure
1:46 Cheddarmuff: First question about disclosure of Jobs health quoting 10b-5 rules. Saying company should correct bad data
Arthur levinsom responding…jobs still involved. Succession plan has regularly discussed. No disclosure about health or plan.
Next person is complimenting company for beautiful products. Wishes Steve well. Singing happy birthhday to Steve..EVERYONE singing.
[1:51 Reuters is reporting that the shareholders voted to re-elect the company's slate of directors and voted down several shareholder-sponsored resolutions regarding executive pay, sustainability and healthcare reform. (link)]
1:52 Cheddarmuff: Next person asking why there isn't more diversity in exec team.
Tim- we take diversity very seriously.
Next person… Long preamble and complaining that apple is getting out of macworld.
Tim- I have very fond memories of Macworld. Where we are now with retail investment blows macworld out of the water. Also we can announce press conferences whenever we want now which is better for the company.
1:57 idannyb: TC responding to "keep macworld" speech… Spoke eloquently about Apple stores, Apple reaching so many customer and platform build of iphone and app store
1:59 idannyb: Far more responses being delivered by BOD members
2:04 idannyb: Too many soap box agenda driven questions this year…
No core shareholder vaule Qs
Tempted to grab a mic but mtg winding down
2:22 Cheddarmuff: Meeting over. I got to talk with Tim Cook after the meeting…a very nice guy. We overheard a discussion with Peter as well.
Got to talk with Jim Goldman on the way out. Nice guy.
# # #
Joe, what Apple does works. If it makes you nervous dump your shares. The rest of us will snap them up. They disclose just enough… and the bits they don't disclose gives the management team an advantage over other companies.
Fed up of secret backroom deals? they seem to be keeping the stock you own quite healthy! Stock owners in the US, big or small are mostly interested in the flip they'll be able to make. Any pretense to the contrary is a sham
Apple will prevail in this down economy. What with PC crashing and the economy, people are going to be looking for a good product at a good price. Mac is the way to go!
Here's my new blog guys, Comment it! http://theriverjordan.net/just-a-quick-reflection
I was in the meeting, first one ever, just a simple 100 share owner. It was clear that no matter how many people got up to speak about their opinions on the proposals or the board of directors, the votes had already been counted ahead of time and all millions of shares owned by insiders were always going to determine the end result (YES on all directors and NO on all proposals). Next year, I suggest that anyone wanting to get directors or management to actually hear the root issues to say something like "your votes have already been cast against this important issue, but this is the only forum in which we are ever able to communicate and challenge you to respond … so we will".
There were folks that were clearly "institutional investors" that controlled thousands or millions of shares, but there were many more senior citizens clearly individual investors, many for a very long time. Next time, someone should say something like "the value of one of your cars is greater than the home value of some of your investors … we believed in your ability to increase our wealth and we enjoy it when it works, but need more transparency and accountability from you when we ask for it". Otherwise, enough of us might not keep buying your stock or might just sell our shares because we're fed up with secret backroom deals.
Was Eric Schmidt there? Anyone question additional conflicts between Apple and Google?
ex ped: No and no.
The MS meeting is always a hoot people! Join us!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/