By Gabriel Madway
CUPERTINO (Reuters) - APPLE (AAPL.NQ)Inc
With Apple's co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs sidelined indefinitely with an undisclosed medical condition, investors will demand more information about the company's future at its annual meeting.
Tim Cook, Jobs' top lieutenant, will take the spotlight as shareholders dig for answers not just about Jobs, but also the company's succession plan, what it might do with its $60 billion cash pile, and what devices may follow the iPad and the iPhone in coming years.
And Calpers wants Apple to garner a majority vote to elect unopposed candidates to its board, which the largest U.S. pension fund says better protects investors' interests.
The proposal, which is quickly gaining support, is part of a broader push for majority-vote corporate board elections by the $226 billion fund. Apple is one of 58 companies Calpers has urged to adopt majority rather than plurality voting, where unopposed directors can be elected easily.
Apple's annual meeting rarely yields financial forecasts or market projections, but is usually good for some drama from a company that has no shortage of compelling story lines. Last year, with Jobs at center stage and the iPad waiting in the wings, investors focused on the company's cash.
But Jobs will likely be on the mind of most people this year. He announced in January he would step away from the company on medical leave, though he remains involved in strategic decision-making.
Jobs' absence comes at a crucial time for the company. Apple is engaged in a battle in the smartphone market with Google Inc
Apple's usually gravity-defying stock has fluctuated this year, and has shown some unsteadiness in recent days. Shares in the world's most valuable technology company are up roughly 5 percent this year, but have slid nearly 6 percent since in the past week as rumors fly about Jobs' health.
Influential investor advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services has thrown its weight behind a shareholder proposal to force Apple to disclose a succession plan.
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In January, Apple posted blockbuster quarterly results on dazzling iPhone and iPad sales and Wall Street is increasingly confident in the management team surrounding Jobs.
Apple's destiny has been closely tied to Jobs, the mercurial and charismatic leader who rescued the computer maker from near-death in 1996 after a 12-year absence from the company he co-founded.
Cook, an operations expert, is steering the company for the third time in seven years. He is considered the heir apparent at Apple.
The company dominates the fledging tablet computer market it helped create with the iPad. But it will confront a number
of challenges this year.
Apple sent invitations to a special event on March 2. The company is widely expected to introduce a new thinner iPad at the event.
The company will also launch the fifth iteration of its ever-popular iPhone just as rivals from Motorola Mobility
U.S. and European regulators are scrutinizing Apple's new rules that give the company a cut of subscription revenue generated by publishers of applications for the iPhone and iPad.
(Editing by Edwin Chan, Kenneth Li and Derek Caney)
