Jobs to investors: Get Stuffed. This is my ship and I’ll run my way

Apple Inc has no plans to declare a dividend or buy back its stock, CEO Jobs told the annual meeting of shareholders on Tuesday, adding that iPhone sales were on track.

Jobs said he was confident that Apple would hit its 2008 sales target of 10 million iPhones, a figure which some analysts have questioned in the face of a weaker U.S. economy, and executives said the communications device would reach Asian markets this year.

But COO Tim Cook was elusive on timing for selling into the key market of China, which has more cellphone users than any other country.

"We will enter Asia with the iPhone in 2008 ... We will one day enter China, we're not saying when, and we will one day enter India," Cook said.

Jobs was asked if the company planned to start paying a dividend or initiate a stock buyback program. "At this time, we have no plans to do either," he told shareholders.

The company's stockpile of cash and short-term investments topped $18 billion at the end of last year, leading to speculation about how the maker of iPods, iPhones and Macintosh computers might spend some of its cash reserves.

Shares of Apple closed up $2.89, or 2.4 percent, at $124.62 on Nasdaq.

The stock is nearly 46 percent higher than it was a year ago, but shed 37 percent so far this year amid concerns that a faltering economy will dampen demand for its products.

One shareholder asked why Jobs hadn't sought to reassure investors about the share price.

"We don't think it's our job to manage our shareholders," Jobs said. "It's our job as the management team to manage the company, to manage it through when the stock price is going up and to manage it when the stock price is going down."

Christine Russo, who drove from Los Angeles to attend the meeting, said she was impressed with Apple's product lineup and saw dips in the stock price as a chance to buy shares cheaply.

"I like to buy and sell. When it was at $200 I sold and took profit and then when it came down I came to buy it back and double up," Russo told Reuters.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-apple.html?_r=1&ref
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