A few hundred investors with a lot to celebrate showed up at 4 Infinite Loop Tuesday for a Tim Cook love fest. We watched it from the press room, where computers and cameras were not permitted, but iPhones were.
- Press room at Apple shareholders meeting is mostly empty (photos not permitted)
- Apple board meeting starting. Board members introduced. Tim Cook wearing sweater with elbow patches.
- [General counsel Bruce] Sewell doing the boring pro forma introductions, including the ushers
- Voting procedures explained. Ballots handed out. This is a joke because the vast majority of votes will go management’s way.
- Board of directors nominated without discussion. Accountants likewise. Exec compensation too. Employee stock purchase plan too.
- Proposal #5 is controversial. Wants transparency in renewable investments that proponent calls “reckless”
- Apple gets a 30% [subsidy] for its $800 million investment in First Solar. That could go away in next administration, critic says.
- Tim Cook’s quote last year that he isn’t focused on the “bloody ROI” is thrown back in his face by an investor group that seems to think that [Apple’s investors] own [the company]
- All Apple proposals passed, but exec comp one got 25.37% no votes, which is high.
- [Business part of the] meeting is over in record 21 minutes. Q&A begins.
- Cook talks about Apple’s “unbelievable” year. Familiar stuff. Reviews new products and services of 2014. Ends with Watch.
- Apple CEO says there’s no business model behind ResearchKit. “We’re not in it for the ROI.”
- Re acquisitions, Cook says “we are constantly on the lookout for talent and IP and other things” (chuckles)
- Cook is calm and self controlled as he ticks off the initiatives like Project Red, ConnectEd, renewable energy
- Cook: This is not about politics. It’s about leaving the world a better place. Doing it because it’s right (applause)
- Tim Cook introduces Jesse Jackson who makes a joke about biscuits and thanks Cook for what he’s done for diversity
- Jackson asks Apple to put an African American on the board and to bring back offshore trillions (sic) to invest in his community
- Jackson is reading from a multi page printout
- Apple shareholders starting to squirm as Jackson drones on
- TimCook: “I’m going to work until my toes point up on diversity”
- First investor questioner cracks a joke: They used to call us Apploonies. Now they call us wealthy.
- Cook: Whenever I have a bad day I go to an Apple Store it’s better than any Prozac
- Shareholder tells Cook: Frankly I’d like to see you buy Tesla
- Apple’s relationship with IBM is like glove on hand says Cook
- Cook: We don’t really have a relationship with Tesla. I’d love to see them pick up CarPlay. “Was that a good way to avoid the question?”
- Cook gets a second Q about Tesla. A: we’re very focused on CarPlay. (Big laughs)
- A second [call] — from a 46 year old black man — for a black board member.
- To answer diversity question, Tim Cook asks his two black execs — both women — to stand up.
- Cook: ex EPA administrator Lisa Jackson wasn’t hired because she’s African American. She was hired because she’s perfect.
- 10:10 last question from a man who bought stock when Cook gave up his bonus. “What can we do to help Apple?” Cook: Tell us when we screw up
- 10:13 Meeting ends.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at coins2day.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.
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