Will Pirc squeeze Apple until the pips squeak?
It's a brave soul who takes on the might of Apple. But corporate governance specialist Pirc is giving it a go before the US tech group's annual meeting on Tuesday. It has advised investors to vote against a resolution on executive pay, partly on the basis that bonus targets may not have been challenging enough. And it is also advising against the reappointment of a number of non-executive directors, including Al Gore - yes, the man who was nearly US president and is a committed environmentalist - because he is apparently no longer independent, having been on the board for more than nine years. However it backs Apple on most of the resolutions which have been put forward by shareholders, and which the company opposes.
In any case, it seems unlikely that Apple chief executive Tim Cook will be losing much sleep over all this. After all, the company is clearly doing the right thing as far as billionaire investor Warren Buffett is concerned, since he recently quadrupled his stake. And Cook already has a lot on his plate. April sees the opening of Apple's new doughnut-shaped campus building in California - an homage to confectionery-loving Homer Simpson and the cartoon's Mapple spoof perhaps?
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