Shareholders Rage at Apple Board's Silence on Jobs

Apple shareholders left an annual meeting today upset at the company’s board for staying mum about CEO Steve Jobs’ health, the Wall Street Journal reports. Considered the company’s chief innovator, Jobs rattled Apple’s stock price last month with news that treatment for a hormone imbalance would sideline him until June. The board said Jobs remains deeply involved in company strategy.

“Many people see it as a private matter, but on the other hand, he’s such an important part of the company,” says an analyst. Today’s meeting was the first Jobs, reelected to the board, missed in a decade. Shareholders’ requests to discuss executive compensation, Apple’s political donations, and its carbon footprint were also denied during the gathering at the firm’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. (More Steve Jobs stories.)