Good afternoon. Thank you for joining Corning's Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Please welcome Corning's Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Wendell Weeks.
Good morning and welcome to Corning Incorporated's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'm Wendell Weeks, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer. With me here today are Linda Jolly, Vice President and Secretary of the Corporation and Louis Stevenson, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Administrative Officer. Thank you for joining us today. In light of the ongoing public health crisis caused By the coronavirus pandemic, we're holding a virtual meeting again this year.
We hope everyone is remaining safe and Healthy. As is our custom, we will conduct the business portion of this meeting first and then answer questions at the end. Now you may ask a question by submitting it in the Q and A section of your web portal. And please feel free to submit your questions now. While we may not have time to answer every question, We will address any unanswered questions on our Investor Relations website after the meeting.
In keeping with the digital approach to this year's meeting, it is now shortly after 12 noon Eastern Standard Time on April 29. And this meeting is officially called to order. Now, I would like to introduce the other members of the Board at today's meeting. Mr. Donald Blair, Retired Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nike Mr.
Leslie Braun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SAAR Group Doctor. Stephanie Burns, retired Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dow Corning Corporation our Lead Director Mr. Richard Clark, Retired Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Merck Mr. Robert Cummings, Retired Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at JPMorgan Mr. Roger W.
Ferguson, Jr, Retired President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA Ms. Deborah Henretta, Retired Group President of Global E Business at Procter and Gamble Company Doctor. Daniel Huttenlocher, Dean of MIT's Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing. Mr.
Curt Landgraf, Retired President of Washington College Mr. Kevin Martin, Vice President, U. S. Public Policy at Facebook Doctor. Deborah Raymond, Retired Executive Chairman of MetaMarkets Group Mr.
Hansel Tookes, Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Raytheon Aircraft and Doctor. Mark Wrighton, Professor and Chancellor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis. We're also joined today by representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers, our independent public accounting firm. And finally, the company has appointed Broadridge Financial Services to act as Inspector of Election.
Ms. Linda Piscadlo has taken the oath of Inspector of Election and she will be tabulating the vote for today's meeting. After the formal meeting is adjourned, I'll make some brief remarks about your company and then we'll have time for a few questions. Just a note, any votes cast during today's meeting will not be included in this morning's preliminary vote totals, but they will be included in the official vote reflected in Corning's SEC filing. And I'll now ask Ms.
Jolly to report on our quorum and other matters.
The Board of Directors fixed March 1, 2021 as the record date for this meeting. The shareholder list shows that as of the record date, there were 769,000,000,164,000 shares of common stock outstanding and entitled to vote at this meeting. A list of shareholders is available for inspection on the web portal. The Inspector of Election has determined that This is 84% of the shares entitled to vote and represents a quorum for purposes of this meeting. This meeting is being held pursuant to the notice of meeting and proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 18, 2021 as supplemented.
Thank you. Now I will present the matters to be voted upon. Please note that we'll give shareholders an opportunity to comment on the proposals after all proposals have been presented. The proposals will be presented in the order outlined in the proxy statement. Proposal 1 Is the election of 14 directors nominees to a 1 year term?
Proposal 2 is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of our executive officers as described in the proxy statement. Now it's a non binding vote, Although the compensation committee and the Board will certainly take the results of the vote into account when making future compensation decisions. Proposal 3 is the ratification of the audit committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Corning's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021. And Proposal 4 is the approval of the company's 2021 long term incentive plan. Now if any shareholder would like to make a comment regarding any of the proposals, please submit your comment through the web portal.
The polls are now open. Any shareholder who has not voted Or wishes to change their vote, I may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Shareholders who have already voted Do not need to take any further action. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls for Corning Incorporated 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders closed. Ms.
Jolly. Do we have the preliminary voting results?
We do. We've been informed by the Inspector of Election that the preliminary vote report shows The 14 director nominees have been duly elected, the compensation of the named executive officers has been approved by advisory vote, The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2021 has been ratified and the 2021 long term incentive plan has We will report the final vote results in a Form 8 ks to be filed with the SEC in the next few days.
Thank you, Madam Secretary. There being no further business to come before the meeting, Corning Incorporated's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is now adjourned. Now that concludes the formal portion of Corning Incorporated's 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Now what I'd like to do is talk to you about how your company is doing. Today's remarks, of course, will include some forward looking statements and actual results may differ materially.
You can find detailed risk factors in our most recent 10 ks and also on Corning's website. You should also be aware that we use certain non GAAP financial measures and performance indicators to assess Corning's financial and operating performance. And you can find a reconciliation between GAAP and non GAAP measures on our website. No question. 2020 was an incredibly difficult year.
We faced the pandemic, economic uncertainty and social unrest. Yet, as Corning has demonstrated time and time again, It is during a crisis that our true character is revealed. For 170 years, whatever challenges have come our way, We persevered and emerged stronger. It's my pleasure to report that Corning is financially healthy. Our businesses are growing and we are capturing exciting new opportunities to apply our unique expertise to solve tough technology challenges.
Most importantly, we continue to lift the values that make Corning Such a special company. Today, I'll summarize our 2021 performance and provide an update on our innovation programs and then address your questions. So let's begin with our financial results. In 2020, Our core net sales for the year totaled $11,500,000,000 Core earnings per share were $1.39 We generated strong free cash flow And we maintained a healthy balance sheet. We're extremely pleased with these results given that Corning's financials were impacted by the pandemic and the global economic turmoil experienced during the year.
We're also particularly proud of the story behind the numbers. From the outset of the pandemic, 3 priorities guided our response. We supported our employees and our communities. We acted swiftly to safeguard our people and facilities around the world. We implemented new protocols for workplace access, health checks and contact tracing and we demonstrated the importance of unity, stepping up to support vital human resources, services and relief efforts in our communities.
We distributed food, donated medical supplies and dispensed personal protective equipment. At the same time, we delivered for our customers. Our employees worked diligently to keep essential operations running smoothly. And we continue to collaborate with industry leaders solving tough technology programs and delivering due to the world materials and manufacturing processes. And of course, throughout this challenging period, we kept our company strong.
We made aggressive adjustments to align our cost and operating plan with lower actual and anticipated sales. Throughout 2020, we improved our balance sheet, generated significant free cash flow and advanced important growth initiatives. And we grew in the second half, closing out the year with a quarter of record sales. Taking a step back, I would like to highlight How Corning is all in, fully committed to the global effort to end this human health crisis. We're doing our best to make a difference with what we have to offer.
We stepped up to play a critical role by applying our expertise, resources and technologies to address the challenges of the pandemic and we continue to do so this year. In 2020, we deployed our life sciences capabilities to combat the virus by supplying technologies to help our customers develop treatments, provide testing and accelerate vaccine production. In addition, Valor Glass is the strongest and highest quality pharmaceutical glass ever produced. Valor vials enable faster filling and capping speeds that are especially beneficial During a pandemic, when every hour counts and every dose delivered makes a difference. Our scientists also developed Guardia, a novel antimicrobial paint additive using our breakthrough in glass ceramics technology.
Corning Guardian kills 99.9% of harmful germs, including the virus that causes COVID-nineteen. Our advanced flow reactor teams in China and France designed, built, shipped And deployed production scale manufacturing within days of a customer's request to produce antimicrobial sprays instead of the weeks or months it would normally take. And our employees around the world came up with innovative ways to secure personal protective equipment to help safeguard their fellow employees as well as frontline hospital workers. I am grateful to all employees for rising to the myriad of challenges we confronted together last year. Now we can't be certain how The recovery from the pandemic and the related recession will ultimately play out.
But we are confident that our execution in 2020 and our continued market leadership Leave us well positioned for growth. We've certainly come a long way Since I addressed you last April. And as Corning's performance improved, we honored our commitment to rewarding shareholders. In February, we increased the quarterly dividend by 9% to $0.24 per common share. And earlier this month, we seized a great opportunity to resume share buybacks.
Through our recent transaction with Samsung Display, we repurchased 4% of our outstanding shares. This is a great deal for our shareholders and it's great news for Corning That Samsung retained a 9% long term ownership stake in our company. We see their investment as validation of Corning's innovation roadmap and the value of our distinct Capabilities. Now let's talk about the current year. On Tuesday, we reported a strong start to what we expect to be an outstanding year.
Core sales were $3,300,000,000 up 29% year over year. Core EPS grew 125% year over year to $0.45 All 5 of our segments delivered double digit sales and net income growth year over year with sales growth rates ranging from 15% for display to 38% for environmental. No question, we are in a strong position And our capabilities are vital to progress on multiple fronts. Now what we do, the way we do it, it isn't easy. It takes time and requires expertise, proprietary equipment, large scale manufacturing and ongoing investment.
But we believe the results speak for themselves And we take pride in our company's long and distinguished record of deploying our core capabilities to enable life changing innovations that improve lives. Our products clean the air we breathe. They connect people to information and each other, Provide the window through which we assess information and entertainment and they help facilitate the discovery and delivery of Vital Medicines. The relevance of our portfolio puts Corning at the heart of ongoing innovation with industry leaders. This provides an especially powerful value creation lever in times of economic uncertainty Because we aren't exclusively relying on people buying more stuff, We're putting more Corning into the products that people are already buying.
Our 5 market access platforms, mobile consumer electronics, optical communications, automotive, Life Sciences and Display allow us to reapply and reuse assets and capabilities developed for customers in one market ecosystem to serve customers in another. And as we apply our portfolio to add value to our customers' products. We often create new opportunities to drive more of our content into our markets. Let's look at how our strategy is playing out across our market access platforms. In life sciences, demand is growing based on COVID-nineteen vaccines and diagnostics.
And we're becoming increasingly relevant as we help the industry move toward cell and gene based therapies. That shift translates into more of our content per drug sold. We're also making significant strides toward building a Valor Glass franchise, addressing a multibillion dollar content opportunity in the pharmaceutical packaging market. To date, The company has shipped enough valor vials for 100 of millions of doses of COVID-nineteen vaccines. And we expanded our agreement with the U.
S. Government to boost capacity for vials to $261,000,000 In Mobile Consumer Electronics, We're capturing significant growth by increasing the value we offer on each device. We've grown specialty sales every year from 2016 to today, despite smartphone unit sales being roughly flat or down each year. Over that 5 year period, we've added more than $750,000,000 in sales on a base of more than $1,000,000,000 Fast Company recently recognized our achievements in this space, noting both Ceramic Shield and Gorilla Glass Victus. The magazine named Corning the most innovative company in consumer electronics for 2021.
In Optical Communications, we remain the unquestioned technology and market leader. We consistently create new products and and our lead by delivering solutions that help our customers realize their network visions faster, better and cheaper. Simultaneously, we're driving significant productivity improvements to increase capacity and lower our cost. We are energized by our outlook in optical. Demand on the network is growing.
Our customers are making encouraging announcements on capital investments for 5 gs and hyperscale data center deployments, as well as for fiber to the home networks. And importantly, we're seeing orders and sales increase. At the same time, multiple governments Are now asserting broadband as a basic right. The White House is calling for more than $120,000,000,000 to bring high speed Internet to every American. And the European Commission is calling for €135,000,000,000 to support a similar rollout of broadband services.
Turning to display. Retail demand is strong and demand for large sized TVs Continues to grow. 75 inches sets were up more than 60% for the full year. Large TVs are most efficiently made on the largest fabs. Corning is well positioned to drive more of our In automotive, our Environmental Technology segment continues to outperform and its underlying markets, driven by more Corning content across both our automotive and diesel businesses.
Since 2017, our auto sales are up more than 40%. While global car sales are down 20%, We're seeing strong year over year growth in gasoline particulate filter sales as adoption continues in Europe and China. And our Automotive Glass Solutions business is building solid momentum. We were thrilled to see the recent world premier event for the all electric EQS from Mercedes. Its hyperscreen features a Gorilla Glass cover almost 5 feet wide.
Stepping back, the long view is that we are moving toward a world and Connected, where medicines are individualized, effective and safe, and where we can do more right from our mobile devices, protected by covering materials that can withstand even greater abuse. Across our market access platforms, We're doing our part to make that world happen. Now I'll close with some final thoughts. Many years from now, When we look back in 2020, I believe many of us will recall a tumultuous time fraught with risk and uncertainty. At Corning, we found an opportunity to unite.
Our people around the world came together to demonstrate the values that truly differentiate us. Our employees have sewn an incredible willingness to sacrifice so that we could deliver for our communities, for our customers and for each other all around the world, Doing what we can with what we have where we are. Clearly, together, we're stronger than any challenge we face. And I want to thank our shareholders for being on this journey with us. We're working hard every day to maintain your trust and reward your confidence in us.
Thank you. Now, we would like to open things up for shareholder questions and comments. Now please note, we'll attempt to answer as many questions as time allows. And any questions That we do not get to will be addressed on our company's website. Louis, have we received any shareholder questions?
Yes, we have. This time we received 2 questions. The first, Mr. Chairman, the Carpenter Pension Funds hold a collective ownership position of 341,200 shares of the company's common stock. As long term investors, we believe the executive compensation plan should be designed to drive the successful execution of the company's long term strategic business plan.
The company engages in periodic share repurchases. As the new long term incentive plan is approved, could you to discuss the interplay between Board decisions to repurchase shares and the burn rate and dilution associated with annual equity compensation grants.
Well, first, thank you for your ownership and confidence in us. The way we think about these is really pretty separately. We manage, let's first deal with the dilution that comes from compensation. For that, we very carefully monitor the overhang that is created. And you'll see when you take a look at the statistics, just how well we do on that metric and We'll be happy to include that on the website as well.
On the other hand, we look at share repurchases A real capital allocation decision and what we seek to do is we will do those in an opportunistic manner where we can see great opportunities for value creation by being able to buy the stock When we view it as deeply depressed. So that's how we tend to look at it. And a little wider is What we do fundamentally with our capital is to invest in growth. And then we take a look at any excess capital that we've created any excess free cash flow that we've created to say how do we return that best to our shareholders either through the dividend or through share repurchases.
Great. Thanks. We have one more question. I'm a long time shareholder and fan of Corning. I'm wondering what is the next Steve JobsApple call, which led to the creation of Gorilla Glass that might move the needle for Corning.
Thank you.
Well, thank you for your long term ownership. And actually that's such an excellent question because it shows that you understand Sort of how our innovation, our co innovation process with our customers works and how much we're inspired by that interaction with our customers, especially the ones That have a clear vision for where they want to take the world going forward. We're actually engaged in a number of Those type of dialogues sort of as we speak. I think one of the most interesting areas to look at, but we have them across our market access platforms is in automotive. Here's an industry that's going to go through more change Over the next decade and that industry has changed in the last 50.
And there's many different points of view on what is the best way to take transportation going forward. And we're engaged on multiple vectors That we look at and say could create on the order of $100 of Corning content per vehicle up basically in order of magnitude from our content that we have per vehicle today. So that type of dialogue is super exciting in that space, but it's actually going on in optical communications as well in display and mobile consumer electronics as well as especially this past year in life sciences. So We feel really good about the way our innovation model is positioned and our engagement with our customers.
That's it.
So that concludes the Q and A portion of the meeting. Thank you again for joining us today. On behalf of Corning Incorporated, I wish you and yours good health and safety.