Apple Shareholders Face Steve Jobs

At the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Cupertino, Apple shareholders approved a proposal Tuesday giving them the opportunity to tell the company what they think about how much its executives, including CEO Steve Jobs, are being paid.

Although the resolution is not binding, it calls on Apple to put its pay policies to an annual vote - a procedure introduced in Britain five years ago.

Apple’s founder takes a token salary of $1, and millions of dollars in perks. But the company has been embroiled in a scandal over the improper pricing of share options which prompted a criminal investigation and a public apology from Jobs in 2006.

The proposal had been opposed by the board of directors and failed last year but won 41 percent of voting shares. It calls on the board to let shareholders vote on a nonbinding resolution each year regarding pay of top executives.

Investors voted down another shareholder proposal for Apple to deepen its commitment to limiting its environmental impact by creating a special board committee on sustainability.

Jobs said he was confident that Apple would hit its 2008 sales target of 10 million iPhones, a figure which some analysts have questioned in the face of a weaker U.S. economy, and executives said the communications device would reach Asian markets this year.

Jobs was asked if the company planned to start paying dividends or initiate a stock buyback program. “At this time, we have no plans to do either,” he told shareholders.

The company’s stockpile of cash and short-term investments topped $18 billion at the end of last year, leading to speculation about how the maker of iPods, iPhones and Macintosh computers might spend some of its cash reserves.