Apple Shareholders ask for Jobs succession plan; Apple resists

[belvdr]

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...posal-gets-more-backers-but-apple-resists.ars

It seems to me the shareholders have a right to know what is going on with a company they invested in. I don't think they are asking for anything they don't deserve.

As pointed out by Bloomberg, Apple has already asked its shareholders to vote against the LIUNA proposal when the annual meeting occurs on February 23. The reasoning? Apple's board already has a succession plan in place for senior management, but wants to keep those talks confidential in order to avoid giving the competition a leg up. Apple also said it wants to avoid giving its executives a reason to look elsewhere "because it would identify who’s being considered for positions and how they are being evaluated."

I think Apple's closed door policy may not work for them on this one, but it's up to voting now.

 

[zenio]

It seems to me the shareholders have a right to know what is going on with a company they invested in. I don't think they are asking for anything they don't deserve.

I think Apple's closed door policy may not work for them on this one, but it's up to voting now.

I agree completely.

There's been too much secrecy around Jobs whereabouts and condition when the medical issue raises it's ugly head.

As someone who is a huge shareholder, I must say it's unacceptable.

 

[UTclassof89]

...As someone who is a huge shareholder, I must say it's unacceptable.

Have you tried diet and exercise?

 

[rdowns]

I own quite a bit of APPL stock and have had it almost 10 years. I voted against it. Apple's reasons make sense.

Do other large public companies have public succession plans?

Have you tried diet and exercise?

<applause>

 

[ucfgrad93]

I own quite a bit of APPL stock and have had it almost 10 years. I voted against it. Apple's reasons make sense.

Do other large public companies have public succession plans?

Agreed. I don't think Apple should make public their succession plans.

 

[QCassidy352]

I'm a shareholder, but I trust apple on this one. I certainly don't have a better idea for a succession plan than they do.

 

[FX120]

I own quite a bit of APPL stock and have had it almost 10 years. I voted against it. Apple's reasons make sense.

Do other large public companies have public succession plans?





<applause>

I am not sure most other companies would suffer the same impact to their traded value in the event of the death of a CEO.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I know I would not want to own AALP when Jobs steps down. More so the only way Jobs is going to leave is on his death bed.

 

[noisycats]

keep it secret

As another shareholder, I also hope they continue to resist pressure to reveal their plan. Apple thrives, truly, on secrecy. We all knew that going in.

 

[talkingfuture]

Surely if they make succession plans public then they will just be subject to endless speculation about when the succession will take place?

 

[belvdr]

I believe if they were to reveal a bit more detail about why Jobs is taking a medical leave, then things may quiet down a bit more about a succession plan.

 

[mammadon]

It's standard HR practice to have succession plans, especially for top management positions. Such a thing is usually kept secret though, and I'd bet only Jobs himself, other senior management and the HR Director would know for certain who is penned in to succeed Jobs.

I think as shareholders own Apple, that to me makes them amongst the biggest players in terms of strategy (IMO that's true of any company). I don't personally get this brew ha ha over Jobs potentially going though. As the formula he has laid down is working, then the next CEO/senior management people will be fools to discard it.

 

[FluJunkie]

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...posal-gets-more-backers-but-apple-resists.ars

It seems to me the shareholders have a right to know what is going on with a company they invested in. I don't think they are asking for anything they don't deserve.

I think Apple's closed door policy may not work for them on this one, but it's up to voting now.

I am an APPL shareholder, and voted with the board. Claiming its "asking for a succession plan" is a bit of misinformation - it's asking for a public airing of who is being considered at any given moment.

I'm not a huge fan of my company being required to launch a combination of open bidding war and rumor mill every time someone says "What about Jimmy the Greek, he could run the company..."

 

[aristobrat]

Apple's board already has a succession plan in place for senior management.

That's all I need to know.

 

[Fubar1977]

Apple maintains a closed door policy on everything so this would be no different.
Lets face it, they hardly have a reputation for disclosing their plans beforehand.
I trust them to make the right decision and they have a great acting CEO in Tim Cook.

 

[maflynn]

I think succession planning is a sound business decision and in light Jobs' health issues, its a wise move.

Stockholders are the owners of a company and it may be worrisome for those owners to see apple be caught flat footed with a sudden departure by Jobs

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

I think succession planning is a sound business decision and in light Jobs' health issues, its a wise move.

Stockholders are the owners of a company and it may be worrisome for those owners to see apple be caught flat footed with a sudden departure by Jobs

Uh, it's safe to assume they already have a succession plan in place and are already several steps ahead of the game. It's safe to assume Apple knows exactly what they're doing and why they're doing it. Yes, they're pretty much smarter and more prescient than anyone else. This should be obvious.

They'll disclose when the time is right. What I'd be more worried about is whether I'll be purchasing a new iPhone or a new iPad, or both. Decisions, decisions. . .

 

[rdowns]

I think succession planning is a sound business decision and in light Jobs' health issues, its a wise move.

Stockholders are the owners of a company and it may be worrisome for those owners to see apple be caught flat footed with a sudden departure by Jobs

The only stockholders worried are the ones with their heads up their asses. How anyone can even think that this issue wasn't taken care of by the board years ago should sell their shares and buy some nice safe dividend paying company.

 

[cmabc]

I hardly think they'll be caught flat footed as they have likely had someone ready to take over since before his liver transplant. The mortality from pancreatic cancer is 95-97%. Higher for metastatic disease. Sadly, little can be done to increase pancreatic cancer life expectancy. Treatments, if they work at all, only lengthen a patient's life by a few months. For most people with the disease, only palliative care can be provided to ease their last days. I think he may be at that point now. Too bad. He'll be missed. That said I'm not dumping my shares.

 

[James L]

I hardly think they'll be caught flat footed as they have likely had someone ready to take over since before his liver transplant. The mortality from pancreatic cancer is 95-97%. Higher for metastatic disease. Sadly, little can be done to increase pancreatic cancer life expectancy. Treatments, if they work at all, only lengthen a patient's life by a few months. For most people with the disease, only palliative care can be provided to ease their last days. I think he may be at that point now. Too bad. He'll be missed. That said I'm not dumping my shares.

There are different types of pancreatic cancer, and they all don't share the statistics you quote above.

 

[gnasher729]

I am not sure most other companies would suffer the same impact to their traded value in the event of the death of a CEO.

There would be panic for two weeks, then the panic would be over, and everyone who bought AAPL in the middle of the panic would have made lots of money. If you bought AAPL on Jan 18th, you are up about seven percent in just three weeks.

People buy Apple products because of their qualities. Of course there are plenty who trot out idiotic claims that 15 million people bought iPads and five times as many bought iPhones for some weird pseudo-religious reasons, but idiocy doesn't create facts.

The mortality from pancreatic cancer is 95-97%. Higher for metastatic disease. Sadly, little can be done to increase pancreatic cancer life expectancy. Treatments, if they work at all, only lengthen a patient's life by a few months. For most people with the disease, only palliative care can be provided to ease their last days. I think he may be at that point now. Too bad. He'll be missed. That said I'm not dumping my shares.

According to your post, Steve Jobs died several years ago.

 

[maflynn]

The only stockholders worried are the ones with their heads up their asses. How anyone can even think that this issue wasn't taken care of by the board years ago should sell their shares and buy some nice safe dividend paying company.

Well it seems apple is resistant to provding any details on this subject certainly hasn't helped the matter. Whether they have or not, is the question and if board hasn't taken care of it, the stock holders want to make sure they do.

Just assuming they have is not good enough for many of the stock holders

 

[cmabc]

There would be panic for two weeks, then the panic would be over, and everyone who bought AAPL in the middle of the panic would have made lots of money. If you bought AAPL on Jan 18th, you are up about seven percent in just three weeks.

People buy Apple products because of their qualities. Of course there are plenty who trot out idiotic claims that 15 million people bought iPads and five times as many bought iPhones for some weird pseudo-religious reasons, but idiocy doesn't create facts.




According to your post, Steve Jobs died several years ago.

Sorry for your misunderstanding. Most people with metastatic pancreatic cancer don't get liver transplants either. In fact I'd never heard of it before and I'm in that business. I'm sure there will be those that profit from the panic when he dies as well.

 

[garybUK]

They know that by releasing such information will have a detrimental impact on the value of the company, lets face it, most of the success of Apple has been Sauron.. oops, Jobs... if they play the hand that they are replacing him, it's now a totally different company. who kows they maybe as sucessful and let their products keep them riding high or it will be their downfall... should be an interesting situation to follow. (how much impact 2 men can have on a company n.b. Jonathan Ive has been as crucial as jobs).

 

[gnasher729]

Sorry for your misunderstanding. Most people with metastatic pancreatic cancer don't get liver transplants either. In fact I'd never heard of it before and I'm in that business. I'm sure there will be those that profit from the panic when he dies as well.

In twenty years time, Steve Jobs will say: "The best decision I ever made was not asking cmabc for medical advice".