Apple’s Annual Shareholders Meeting Sees Questions of Tesla Acquisition

Following the Apple event, Tim Cook met today with the company’s shareholders at the headquarters in Cupertino to vote on proposals from both Apple management and others. Members of the press such as Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt and the Wall Street Journal’s Daisuke Wakabayashi were present at the meeting.

All Apple proposals passed, but exec comp one got 25.37% no votes, which is high.

— Philip Elmer-DeWitt (@philiped) March 10, 2015

Apple shareholder meeting over in record 21 minutes. Q&A begins.

— Philip Elmer-DeWitt (@philiped) March 10, 2015

During the shareholder meeting, Tim Cook said the recently introduced ResearchKit isn’t about ROI: “This is not the lens at which we look at the world,” he said.

Tim Cook says research kit has no business model or ROI – "this is not the lens at which we look at the world"

— Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka) March 10, 2015

Speaking about China, Cook also reiterated Apple’s position in the market. You may recall that during the event, Apple’s CEO emphasized the company’s aggressive expansion plans in China. Apple opened 6 stores in six weeks in the country and plans to open 40 stores by mid-2016.

The meeting was great for an update on Apple’s recent acquisitions — although we don’t have names: the company has acquired 23 companies in 15 months while constantly looking for talent, IP, and other things that “are of interest,” Cook said.

Not so long ago, the Apple Car bomb exploded. Since then, we’ve heard a few tidbits from the WSJ and Bloomberg about Project Titan. As it turns out, shareholders want to buy Tesla outright, but that doesn’t seem to be part of the company’s future acquisition plans. Cook was careful about avoiding the question, but we understand that Apple wants the company to use CarPlay.

Tim Cook says we don't have a relationship with tesla, wants them to use CarPlay. "Was that a good way to avoid the question?" Laughter

— Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka) March 10, 2015

Take-away from Apple shareholder meeting – shareholders want apple to buy tesla. Will management listen?

— Daisuke Wakabayashi (@daiwaka) March 10, 2015

The meeting ended with some tidbits about the partnership with IBM. Tim Cook described it as like a “glove on hands.”