Apple Computer shareholders will have their first chance today to show their approval -- or disdain -- for the work done by interim CEO Steve Jobs, when they are asked at a shareholder meeting to vote on whether Jobs should be re-elected to the company's board of directors.
Also up for re-election to the board is Larry Ellison, chairman and CEO of Oracle, and Edgar S. Woolard Jr., former chairman, president and CEO of DuPont, according to documents filed by Apple with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ellison was appointed to Apple's six-member board in August last year, shortly after a management shakeout which saw all but two of the board members lose their posts. Woolard is one of those two original members.
Apple officials played down the importance of the fact that the shareholder meeting will be closed to press, analysts, and shareholders who purchased their stock after February 23. No major announcements are planned for the meeting, and space at the Cupertino site where the meeting will be held is limited, an Apple spokeswoman said.
Other items on the agenda include approval of a stock plan that would give the company's top officers and directors the option to buy up a total of 17.4 million Apple shares, according to the regulatory filing.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, can be reached on the Web at http://www.apple.com/.