Major Apple Shareholder To Withhold Vote For Entire Board (W/Explanation)

A ppleis board of director, including CEO Steve Jobs, has a thorn in its collective side. That thorn comes in the form of the California Public Employeeis Retirement System (Calpers), one of the companyis largest shareholders. Calpers has announced that it will withhold its 1.48 million votes for Appleis entire board of directors because the board failed to implement a plan to account for stock options as an expense that was approved by shareholders. From a Reuters report:

The California Public Employeesi Retirement System, which has assets of about $167 billion, also criticized Appleis board for authorizing Appleis auditor, KPMG LLP, to perform nonauditing, or consulting services, for the maker of Macintosh computers and the iPod digital music players.

Calpers said it would withhold voting its 1.48 million shares from the entire board, vote them against ratifying Appleis auditor, and against a shareholder proposal limiting executive compensation, saying the "proposal is too restrictive."

Thereis more information in the full article at Yahoo!is Web site.