Since Applied Materials management will not give its shareholders a genuine right to act by written consent we need the right for 10% of shares to be able to call a special shareholder meeting.



Applied Materials shareholders gave 49% support to a shareholder proposal to give shareholders the right to act by written consent. This 49% support represented clear majority support from the shares that have access to impendent proxy voting advice. In response to this majority support management gave us a useless right to act by written consent. This was under the “leadership” of Ms. Judy Bruner, who chaired the Governance Committee.



In response to this majority vote from the shares that have access to independent proxy voting advice, under Ms. Bruner we got a form of written consent that is so difficult to use that a group of shareholders, who see an urgent need to have a vote on an important item between annual meetings, would automatically choose to call for a special shareholder meeting because it is less difficult than attempting to act by written consent.



Thus to make up for our lack of a real right to act by written consent we need the right of 10% of shares to call for a special shareholder meeting.



A more reasonable stock ownership threshold to call for a special shareholder meeting to elect a new director could give our directors a greater incentive to improve their performance.



For instance Mr. Thomas Iannotti, Chair of the executive pay committee, received the most negative votes at the 2022 annual meeting. And 16% of Applied Materials shares rejected management pay when a 5% rejection is often the norm.