Inside the conference hall, shareholders munched on Starbucks chocolate ice-cream, and drank cup after cup of free Starbucks coffee.

BBC: Starbucks takes on its critics

Instead, he used an appearance at the Goldman Sachs technology conference in New York to reassure shareholders that Apple still has considerable room to grow and should not be judged on the apparent slowdown in its trajectory over the last quarter.

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"I find it bizarre we find ourselves being sued for doing something that's good for shareholders, " Mr. Cook said onstage at the conference in San Francisco.

WSJ: Apple Calls Proxy Fight a 'Silly Sideshow'

Only 14.4% of companies communicate with shareholders via social media, according to a 2012 survey by the Conference Board and Stanford University.

WSJ: SEC Says Companies Can Use Social Media to Alert Investors

Its true shareholders are unknown, and Carlos Pascual, then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, remarked at a conference in Kiev that he feared it was connected to organized crime.

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At the BMO Global Metals and Mining conference last week, several company chief executive officers said that more management discipline was vital to bring back shareholders back into the fold.

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