Shareholders re-elect Steve Jobs to Disney board
updated 03:45 pm EDT, Wed March 23, 2011
Health, absenteeism put aside
Investors have voted to re-elect Apple CEO Steve Jobs to the Disney board of directors, according to Bloomberg. An early count reportedly shows 74 percent of votes going to back Jobs and 12 other nominees. "The Walt Disney Company considers itself fortunate to have Steve Jobs as a member of its board of directors," reads an e-mail statement. Jobs did not attend the meeting, despite being the most powerful individual shareholder with 7.29 percent of Disney stock.
Poor attendance was a point of contention for those opposed to Jobs' re-election. Both Glass Lewis & Co. and the AFL-CIO have remarked that Jobs has been absent from a vast majority of Disney board meetings. Another group, Institutional Shareholder Services, was not opposed to having Jobs on the board but questioned "his ability to fulfill his responsibilities" as a Disney director.
Jobs is not likely to increase his participation at Disney anytime soon. His absenteeism has been blamed on his health, since he is currently on his third medical leave since 2004, when he was first treated for pancreatic cancer. What issues he may be coping with now have gone undisclosed.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2008
When Jobs was asked by Disney for advice...
on improving the Disney stores. Jobs pointed to his man in charge of the Apple Stores. I'm sure that "nuances" like this make Jobs invaluable, but companies like "Institutional Services for Pissing Shareholders Off," the AFL-CIO, and others are not a nuance but a nuisance! It's not enough that Jobs has already made them a pile of money, they have to have more. This is why governments and citizens are teed off about the big unions which are no different than big corporations.