As we reported, the annual meeting of Apple shareholders took place today at the Steve Jobs Theater, in the middle of Apple Park, with the participation of a large part of Apple executives and directors – and, of course, CEO Tim Cook. In general, the meeting did not bring much news or revelations, but part of it drew attention: the criticism, coming from a group of conservative shareholders, that Apple would be «Too liberal».
The issue started when shareholder Justin Danhof, who is also an advocate of conservative causes, accused Apple’s diversity policies of being «sexist and racist» – presumably against white men and people. Thereafter, a group of conservative shareholders came together, accusing the company of adopting excessively liberal policies and constituting a governing body without conservative representations.
To try to curb the supposed problem, the conservative group National Center for Public Policy Research he proposed a measure: that all Apple directors, current and future, nominally reveal their “ideological perspectives” so that the company’s board of directors has members from all parts of the political spectrum. The proposal was rejected by 98.3% of the shareholders present.
Tim Cook himself participated in the discussion, saying that Apple has policies, not political positions. The CEO stated that the company is «in favor of capitalism, the environment, immigration» and «strongly believes in privacy», adding that, for Apple, these aspects «are not ideological – they are just political».
Cook admitted that in the highly polarized society of 2019, some of these issues may sound ideological, but he does not see the issue that way. In fact, almost all of Apple’s actions in the social field can be aligned to a more liberal stance – just look at the constant clashes between its CEO and US President Donald Trump of the Republican Party.
Apart from this small imbroglio, the Apple shareholder meeting went without significant news. A statement to be highlighted came from Cook himself, who stated that one of the company’s possible goals is to lower the price of new MacBooks Air with Retina display – they currently start at $ 1,200.
The CEO also affirmed that Apple has “incredible” planning for the future and that, soon, it will present products that will impress the world – which, despite being a platitude (no CEO will say “we will present horrible products”, after all) , nevertheless piques our curiosity for the prospects of the “Apple Video”, the new Mac Pro and, eventually, the Apple autonomous car project.
Apple’s shares rose about 1% over the course of the day, indicating that the reception of shareholders and the financial market for the meeting was (minimally) positive.
via Cult of Mac
