Shareholders Push Hard For Apple Succession Plan 233
eldavojohn writes "Apple has been a couple weeks now sans their iconic fearless leader and the shareholders are getting restless without a succession plan. Essentially the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) is saying that there hasn't been enough disclosure in why exactly Steve is absent and they'd like an annual succession plan delivered to shareholders. Apple is recommending that on February 23 at its annual company meeting, its shareholders vote against the proposal for a succession plan. Apple may have a plan for life after Steve Jobs but if they do they are not sharing it with anyone — not even their financiers!"
Re:It hasn't been revised for a few years... (Score:4, Interesting)
I would agree. It's no secret that the last time Tim took over while Steve was having his operation. I would no doubt believe Steve has groomed Tim to actually take over.
And then there's the other Steve who while not officially on the Apple payroll (I don't think - maybe he gets a token amount?), is also as much a part of Apple as Jobs is. I'm talking about Wozniak, and while I'm sure the two Steves disagree on a lot of things, Woz would probably be hired as the public figurehead (Tim is a bit more private and reserved) to replace Jobs at keynotes and such.
Tim has handled a lot of products already, and may not be as explosive as Jobs or as public, but I'm sure Woz would fit right in.
I'm surprised that the shareholders are demanding it when the next in line is so plainly obvious. And I'm sure Jobs has also been grooming others for marketing purposes - a lot of keynotes feature more than just Jobs, especially during the demos.
Re:Owning stock - so? (Score:4, Interesting)
Itâ(TM)s not a ponzi scheme which requires new investors to support the old.
Except it actually does.
Your shares pay you nothing ever unless you cash them out (and your only ahead if you get more than you paid after commissions), meaning a new investor has to buy your shares for more than you paid for them for you to realize any profit.
Because the company never returns money back to the investors, the only money existing investors get out, is from new investors buying in.
That is starting to look like a ponzi scheme.
A classic ponzi scheme has the returns of the old investors paid for directly by the new investors, and for the returns to continue, ever more new investors have to buy in.
Now Apple isn't a true ponzi... there is a real company under there, with real value, and holding apple stock represents real wealth in terms of it being a fractional part of the real company. What that value is is debatable, but its definitely way above zero.
However its day to day valuation does actually behave pretty much exactly like a ponzi scheme. Any money made by owning apple shares is funded by new investors buying in at a higher price. Any money they make is made from new investors buying in even at a higher price. And so on... that is fundamentally not sustainable.
Apple has not paid any dividends because it believes that it can grow future profits and the current cash faster then if the owners were to take there money and invest in something else.
And that's a fair rationale... we need this cash to make the company better, and you the investor will hold a larger more valuable company as a result. However, that only works in the short / medium term... when that becomes a perpetual promise, then it never pays.
It would be like loaning your brother a $1, on the promise of getting $1.20 at the end of the week. At the end of the week, he says... hold up another week and I'll get you $1.50... and you say sure... 25 years later go by and you still haven't been paid. Sure, your brothers made good use of the money and is a rich bastard who owes you millions... but you'll die before he evers pays up... or maybe he finally screws up goes broke and you'll be lucky to get your original $1 out.
That's investing in apple... although at least you can get out whenever you want, as long as you can find someone else who believes more in your brother (Apple) than you do.