In 2011, shareholders voted in favor of this change but since it was a non-binding proposal, the Apple board did not adopt the measure. Many companies have been implementing this change, and Apple decided to move in that direction regardless of the outcome of the voting. With this new policy, directors who do not secure a majority of the outstanding voting shares, will need to voluntarily step down.
One of the questions posed to CEO Tim Cook was how Apple viewed Facebook (friend or enemy). Cook said they considered FB a friend since Apple has worked a lot with them, and that Apple’s customers use Facebook an enormous amount.
The way I look at it is this…. keep your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer. In business, “friends” can be a tricky and sticky term. The more proper term(s) based on the above statement is “frienemy” and “coopetition” (where you can have friendly cooperation but also compete).
Personally, I don’t want to see OS X “infected” with Facebook integration with “likes” buttons all over the place. As mentioned in some other posting here, I don’t “use” Facebook under my real name (I have two accounts; one registered under the name of a food and the other of a software product, with both names written in Japanese kana) because of their various lapses in respecting users privacy. And yes, I realize the irony here (with regards to privacy), by using a bunch of Google products. Google has not been an angel in this area, and they’ll do most anything to grab whatever information they can about you.
But I need to make it clear again that I realize this, and that what I choose to put out there publicly now is only a very tiny sliver of personal information (I value my privacy).
