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Posts Tagged ‘Apple Shareholders’

Al Gore taunted at shareholders’ meeting, gets 10k more options anyway

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple Financial, Apple

Last week in this post and last night during the talkcast, we mentioned that Apple’s shareholders had passed on a sustainability proposal during last week’s meeting (the first time in recent memory that Apple didn’t go for stricter environmental standards), but apparently the shareholders weren’t just against the proposal. At least one of them was openly heckling Al Gore about his work with the environment. Shelton Ehrlich (who apparently has a reputation among Apple shareholders as a conspiracy believer) stood up and called Gore a “laughingstock,” railing against Gore’s re-election to the board of directors. Good times — we’re sure Gore is used to dealing with controversies like that, but we wouldn’t have expected it at the Apple shareholder meeting.

Still, that hasn’t dissuaded him from working with the company — according to an SEC filing, he also picked up another 10,000 stock options from Apple, netting him more than $227k according to Apple’s current stock price. Good deal. At least one of Apple’s shareholders isn’t too happy with Gore’s work for the environment, but the relationship between Gore and Apple seems like it’s here to stay for a while.

TUAWAl Gore taunted at shareholders’ meeting, gets 10k more options anyway originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shareholders ask Ballmer about Apple

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

While Bill Gates looked on, Microsoft shareholders asked CEO Steve Ballmer about Apple at their annual meeting this morning. Steve’s CEO-speak responses illustrate the larger problem.

Portfolio reports that one investor asked about the company’s reputation with young customers:

“I’m just wondering why your marketing group can’t do something to try to rein in this next generation, because you’ve got a real bad image out there.”

He also said that Apple’s ads make Microsoft look like “a buffoon.” That’s when the CEO-speak began.

“There’s certainly always opportunities for improvement,” Ballmer said. “[There is] … a group of people with whom our market share is less.”

When you hear “opportunity for improvement,” you’re screwed. Euphemistic language clouds meaning and hides the truth. Think “economic downturn” and “previously enjoyed” instead of “depression” and “used.” Or “opportunity for improvement” instead of “problem.”

Remember the Windows Mojave ads, in which producers tricked customers into thinking Vista was an unreleased version of Windows, only to then throw open the curtain and essentially say, “See? It’s really Vista! You DO like it! There’s nothing wrong here!”

Instead of telling people what they like, sanitizing language, insisting that the only reason the iPhone has 75,000 apps available is to make it usable on the Internet and denying your kids iPods, just say, “Our reputation with young people is poor and here’s what we’ll do about it.” That’s when you’ll get something done.

[Via MacDailyNews]

TUAWShareholders ask Ballmer about Apple originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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