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TechApple

Apple’s 2015 shareholders meeting in 31 Tweets

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 10, 2015, 3:59 PM ET
Photo: PED

A few hundred investors with a lot to celebrate showed up at 4 Infinite Loop Tuesday for a Tim Cook love fest. We watched it from the press room, where computers and cameras were not permitted, but iPhones were.

Screen Shot 2015-03-10 at 12.48.37 PM
Here’s what we tweeted:

  • Press room at Apple shareholders meeting is mostly empty (photos not permitted)
  • Apple board meeting starting. Board members introduced. Tim Cook wearing sweater with elbow patches.
  • [General counsel Bruce] Sewell doing the boring pro forma introductions, including the ushers
  • Voting procedures explained. Ballots handed out. This is a joke because the vast majority of votes will go management’s way.
  • Board of directors nominated without discussion. Accountants likewise. Exec compensation too. Employee stock purchase plan too.
  • Proposal #5 is controversial. Wants transparency in renewable investments that proponent calls “reckless”
  • Apple gets a 30% [subsidy] for its $800 million investment in First Solar. That could go away in next administration, critic says.
  • Tim Cook’s quote last year that he isn’t focused on the “bloody ROI” is thrown back in his face by an investor group that seems to think that [Apple’s investors] own [the company]
  • All Apple proposals passed, but exec comp one got 25.37% no votes, which is high.
  • [Business part of the] meeting is over in record 21 minutes. Q&A begins.
  • Cook talks about Apple’s “unbelievable” year. Familiar stuff. Reviews new products and services of 2014. Ends with Watch.
  • Apple CEO says there’s no business model behind ResearchKit. “We’re not in it for the ROI.”
  • Re acquisitions, Cook says “we are constantly on the lookout for talent and IP and other things” (chuckles)
  • Cook is calm and self controlled as he ticks off the initiatives like Project Red, ConnectEd, renewable energy
  • Cook: This is not about politics. It’s about leaving the world a better place. Doing it because it’s right (applause)
  • Tim Cook introduces Jesse Jackson who makes a joke about biscuits and thanks Cook for what he’s done for diversity
  • Jackson asks Apple to put an African American on the board and to bring back offshore trillions (sic) to invest in his community
  • Jackson is reading from a multi page printout
  • Apple shareholders starting to squirm as Jackson drones on
  • TimCook: “I’m going to work until my toes point up on diversity”
  • First investor questioner cracks a joke: They used to call us Apploonies. Now they call us wealthy.
  • Cook: Whenever I have a bad day I go to an Apple Store it’s better than any Prozac
  • Shareholder tells Cook: Frankly I’d like to see you buy Tesla
  • Apple’s relationship with IBM is like glove on hand says Cook
  • Cook: We don’t really have a relationship with Tesla. I’d love to see them pick up CarPlay. “Was that a good way to avoid the question?”
  • Cook gets a second Q about Tesla. A: we’re very focused on CarPlay. (Big laughs)
  • A second [call] — from a 46 year old black man — for a black board member.
  • To answer diversity question, Tim Cook asks his two black execs — both women — to stand up.
  • Cook: ex EPA administrator Lisa Jackson wasn’t hired because she’s African American. She was hired because she’s perfect.
  • 10:10 last question from a man who bought stock when Cook gave up his bonus. “What can we do to help Apple?” Cook: Tell us when we screw up
  • 10:13 Meeting ends.

Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.

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