AAPL down on foreign exchanges after Jobs announcement

While Steve Jobs is important he isn't the only one working there. And the ideas aren't his, he either shoots them down or says improve on it. I think Tim can do that too.

Most boards - and most shareholders in most companies - vote against similar proposals whenever they appear. Which ain't too often.

Not that I'm surprised about Apple shareholders coming up with it.

Worth noting: At the annual shareholder’s meeting in February, there is a proposal by the Central Laborers’ Pension Fund (which owns 11K shares of Apple stock) to “amend the company’s corporate governance guidelines to adopt and disclose a written CEO succession planning policy.”

The Apple board of trustees, in its proxy statement to investors (mailed out a few weeks ago), recommends that shareholders vote against this. The board says in its dissent, “The Company recognizes that a highly talented and experienced management team, not just the CEO, is critical to Apple’s success. Accordingly, the Board already implements many of the proposed actions and maintains a comprehensive succession plan throughout the organization,” and then goes on to give more detailed reasons for their opposition.

Because the board recommends against this motion, it will almost certainly be defeated (most shareholders choose “vote with the board’s recommendations” on their proxy ballots). Nevertheless, I imagine that there will be more spirited debate about this proposal than there might otherwise have been, in light of Steve’s absence.