Shareholders take a bite out of Apple's Jobs [View All]

[Omaha Steve]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/10/BUGO5POOEL4.DTL

(05-10) 13:09 PDT -- At an annual meeting that was expected to be a little more lively than usual, a feisty Steve Jobs sparred with Apple Inc. shareholders who were asking pointed questions about his compensation, the CEO's role in backdating stock options and the company's environmental record.

Responding to questions about his compensation - a combination of stock options and a $1 salary - Jobs fired back with this: "I get 50 cents just for showing up and 50 cents for my performance."

Regarding the millions he received, then gave back, in backdated options grants from Apple, Jobs said the company actually owed him more money but he wasn't looking to collect. "I'm not asking the company to make good on that," he said.

The criticism of Apple, and Jobs in particular, was a rare show of dissent at the Cupertino company, which has experienced an extraordinary string of success in recent years, driven by its popular iPod digital music players among other things and Jobs' strong leadership. But, this year, due mostly to the options backdating scandal that has been hounding the company, a number of shareholder initiatives were proposed that aimed to change some the company's compensation and governance structures.

Although the vote tallies from those initiatives were not immediately available, it was clear that the backdating scandal was weighing heavily on those in attendance. Jobs, along with the other members of Apple's board, are in the middle of the scandal.

Though members of the board - which he called "one of the best in the world" - were present, Jobs declined to have them answer shareholder questions. In attendance were Intuit chairman Bill Campbell, Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who then returned to Google's Mountain View headquarters for his own company's shareholder meeting.

FULL story at link.