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Jobs on Backdating, and other Apple meeting highlights
May 11, 2007
Steve Jobs was in a feisty mood on Thursday as he took questions from the audience at Apple’s shareholder meeting.
In his first public comments about backdating since the scandal broke last year, Mr Jobs defended his role, swatting down a question from an AFL-CIO representative who asked "what did you know, and when did you know it?"
"These issues are sometimes a little more complicated than they appear," Mr Jobs said. He said comments by Fred Anderson, Apple’s former CFO, who said he warned Mr Jobs about the accounting implications of a backdated options grant, were "wrong."
"I’m not going to go into any more detail," he said. He read from a statement by the SEC that praised Apple for its "swift, extensive and extraordinary cooperation" in the agency’s investigation into the company. "Unless you think there’s a conspiracy involving the SEC I don’t know what else to say," Mr Jobs said.
Later in the Q&A session, Mr Jobs tangled with Greenpeace, saying the environmental group’s ranking of companies’ environmental performance was "based more on statements made at conferences than on any science."
Greenpeace and other green groups present at the meeting praised Mr Jobs for Apple’s decision last week to outline its environmental initiatives. But when asked whether Apple would be willing to establish formal relationships with groups like the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Mr Jobs demurred.
"We’re not going to set up an infrastructure to deal with environmental groups," he said. "Our focus is on getting things done." However, he said Apple would be willing to work with green groups to develop a common ‘report card’ for measuring companies’ environmental performance.
The biggest barb of the day was reserved for Apple’s old nemesis. Asked why Apple didn’t consider spending more of its cash to invest in devloping new products, Mr Jobs said:"I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a cheque." Then, without missing a beat, he added: "If that were the case, Microsoft would have great products."
