“Apple Inc on Thursday adopted a measure long desired by investors and corporate governance activists, granting its shareholders a bigger say in the appointment of directors to the board of the world’s largest technology company,” Noel Randewich reports for Reuters.
“Chief Executive Tim Cook also repeated that he has been ‘thinking very deeply’ about investors’ demands that the consumer electronics company return some of its $98 billion in cash and securities to shareholders via a dividend,” Randewich reports. “On Thursday, Apple finally acceded to demands from U.S. pension fund Calpers and other major investors that it require unopposed directors to secure a majority-share vote before getting elected to the board.”
Randewich reports, “Calpers, the largest U.S. pension fund, has long sought support for such a measure to be adopted at scores of other U.S. corporations.”
Read more in the full article here.
Ben Gallagher reports for MarketWatch, “Apple announced before the voting portion of the meeting that it has already decided to implement the measure for its next board election.”
“The measure… requires that members of the company’s board be elected by an affirmative vote by a majority of shareholders; current bylaws allow unopposed directors to maintain their seats even without a majority approval,” Gallagher reports. “The company said the proposal had been approved by about 80% of the shareholder votes cast, based on preliminary figures. All members of the company’s board of directors were also reelected by majority votes at the meeting.”
Read more in the full article here.
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