Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Luke Sarafin, Chief Executive Officer and President of Rambus Inc. And it is my pleasure to welcome you to Ramas Inc. 2019 annual meetings of stockholders. Before proceeding further, let me introduce the directors and director nominees of the company who are present today.
Our class 2 directors present today and who are also our 2019 Board nominees are Emiko Higache, Sanjay Sarraf and Eric Stang. Our class 1 directors are E Thomas Fisher, Charles Kinstner, David Shrigley, and me. I would also like to introduce the corporate officers who are in attendance. Rahul Mather, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Finance, and Jay Kim, Senior Vice President, General Counsel And Secretary. Also with us today are Alan Worry, representing PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Michael Koch representing Wilson's and Cini Goodrich and Rosati, our outside corporate counsel.
I will act as Chairman of this meeting and I have asked Jay Kim to facilitate and record the minutes.
Thank you, Luke. This annual meeting is being held in accordance with the company's bylaws and Delaware law. We will first address the matters described in the company's proxy statement dated March 8, 2019. We will then complete the balloting process. An announcement will be made regarding the voting results and then the official portion of the meeting will be adjourned.
After that, there will be a brief company presentation. Stockholders attending the meeting may submit questions regarding the meeting or the company presentation via the virtual meeting Q And A portal. Stockholder questions will not be answered during the formal portion of the meeting, or during the company's presentation, but at the conclusion of the meeting. While we welcome full stockholder participation, We may not be able to answer or if the questions are deemed inappropriate subject matter for this meeting. Notice for the notice of the meeting.
I have proof by affidavit that notice of this meeting has been duly given and that the notice, proxy statement, and proxy were mailed on or about March 8, 2019, to all stockholders of record at the close of business on February 28, 2019. The record date for the meeting. We have at this meeting a record of stockholders as of that date. The affidavit together with copies of the notice, proxy statement, and proxy will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. Inspector of Election.
We have appointed Kirk Williams, vice president and Deputy General Counsel, to act as Inspector of Election for this annual meeting. The Inspector of Election has signed an oath of office, which will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. Qorum. Based on a review of the proxy card submitted prior to this meeting, the Inspector of Election, has determined that out of an aggregate of 110,000,030,515 shares issued and outstanding as of the record date, The holders of at least $97,953,458 Shares of common stock are present or represented at the meeting, which represents approximately 89% of all outstanding shares. That constitutes a majority of votes eligible to be passed by the holders of shares issued in outstanding.
As such, a quorum is therefore present The meeting is duly constituted and the business of the meeting may now proceed. Voting procedures. I will now briefly describe the voting procedures. You may vote by proxy or by online ballot. Each holder of common stock is entitled to 1 vote for each share of common stock held of of record at the close of business on the record date.
If you have previously submitted your proxy and you do not intend to change your vote, it is not necessary that you submit another proxy or vote online. Your vote will already be counted. If you are eligible to vote and you have not submitted your proxy or if you want to change your vote, Please vote online now. I will announce preliminary results of the voting at the end of the meeting. Opening of the polls, it is now approximately 905, and the polls for each matter to be voted on at this meeting are now open.
Proposal number 1, election of directors. The first item of business is the election of directors. The company's board of directors presently have 7 members and is divided into 2 classes, each with an overlapping 2 year term. There are 4 class 1 directors and 3 class 2 directors. As indicated in the company's proxy statement, the following three individuals have been nominated by our board to serve as class 2 directors.
Erika Higashi Sanjay Sarraf and Eric Stang. All of the nominees are currently serving as directors of the company. Directors elected at today's meeting will hold office until 2021, Annual meeting of stockholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. Pursuant to the notice of this annual meeting and the proxy statement dated March 8, 2019, the proxy solicited by the Board of Directors will be in favor of these nominees. The company's bylaws require that each director be elected by a majority of those cast, with respect to such of the corporate governance and nominating committee of the board will determine whether or not to accept the the pretender resignation of any nominee for director who receives a greater number of votes against his or her election than votes for such election.
There are no cumulative voting rights in the election of directors. Stockholders as of the record date may vote their shares for against, some, all, or none of the nominees. Proposal 2, advisory vote to approve named executive officer compensation. The next item of business concerns the non binding advisory vote to named executive officer compensation. The proposal seeks the approval of the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in our proxy statement and specifically in the compensation discussion and analysis section.
The board has recommended a vote in favor of the compensation of our named executive officers as described in the proxy statement. Approval requires the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the votes cast. Abstentions have the same effect as a negative bump and broker non boats are not considered votes cast. Proposal 3, the ratification of appointment of independent registered public accounting firm. The next item of business is to ratify the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, PwC as independent registered public accounting firm for the company for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019.
The audit committee of the board recommended to the board of directors that PwC be appointed as independent registered public accounting firm. As our independent registered public accounting firm, PwC would audit our consolidated financial for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019, and perform other audit related and non audit services as described in the proxy statement. The board has approved the selection of PwC as independent registered public accounting firm for this fiscal year ending December 31, 2019. And is asking the stockholders for ratification of this election. If the stockholders do not approve the selection of PwC as independent registered public accounting firm, the board and the audit committee will reconsider the appointment.
The board of directors recommends that stockholders vote in favor of this proposal. Approval required the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the votes cast, abstentions have the same effect as a negative vote, Brokers have the discretion to vote any un instructed shares. However, broken non votes are not considered votes cast. Alan Woolery is present from PwC and will address any questions that we receive with respect to this proposal. We'll now collect the proxy cards and ballots.
Again, if you have not voted and intend to vote, please do so now online. You must submit your vote in order for them to be counted as the polls will close momentarily. The Inspector of Election may not accept ballots proxies or votes or any changes or revocation submitted after we close the polls. Closing of the polls, it is now approximately 9 after 9 local time. The polls for each matter to be voted on at meeting are now closed.
No additional ballots, proxies, votes, and no changes or verifications will be accepted. We'll now do the preliminary voting results. The proxies and ballots have been tabulated by the Inspector of Election. The Inspector of Election has provided me with a preliminary report on the voting results. With regard to proposal 1, the 3 nominees, Emik Goghagashi, Sanjay Sarraf and Eric Stang were each elected with the majority of the votes cast and will hold office until the 2021 annual meeting of stockholders or until his or her successor is duly elected and qualified.
With regard to proposal 2, a majority of the votes cast have in favor of the advisory vote on executive compensation. With regard to proposal Resured Public Accounting Firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019, has also been ratified by majority of the shares present in person or by proxy at this meeting. Recorded during this meeting will be set forth in the report of the Inspector of Election and will be included in the minutes of the meeting. The final results will also be reported in a Form 8 K to be filed with the SEC. And with that, this annual meeting is now adjourned.
Thank you for your attendance. We will now proceed with our company presentation. Before we go any further, I would like to note that during the presentation, we may make forward looking statements regarding future events or the financial performance of the company, which involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements are only predictions and actual events or results could differ materially from those predictions Due to a number of risks and uncertainties, I refer you to the documents we file with the Securities And Exchange Commission, specifically the company's annual report on Form 10 K filed on February 22, 2019. These documents contain and identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections and forward looking statements.
With the formal business as the meeting now completed, I am turning the meeting back over to Luc for a presentation of the company.
Thank you, Jay. I would like to share some insights on the strategy for the company moving forward. For 2019, our top priorities as a company will be centered around 3 primary objectives: The first will be to refocus our product portfolio around our core strength in Semiconductors, namely high speed memory and chip to chip interfaces, memory buffer chips and embedded security cores and provisioning software. We will target Leading Edge High Growth Markets like data center networking, artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT and automatives. These markets that demand It's these are markets that demand both increasing levels of performance and security positioning Rambus as an ideal choice for high speed interfaces and embedded security solutions.
We are aligning the research priorities in the Rambus labs on innovation and patents development in these key areas as well. Our patents remain foundational to our industry by reinforcing our commitment to invention and advancing Semiconductor Technology. We enhance our value and relevance in our target markets and create a platform for investments in product development. The second objective will be to optimize the company for operational efficiency and profitability leveraging synergies across our businesses and customer base. There's a significant overlap in our ecosystem of customers, partners, and influencers.
By focusing on hardware and software solutions for secure connected semiconductors, we are able to bring And finally, the 3rd objective is to leverage our demonstrated ability to generate cash and reinvest in ourselves through organic and inorganic growth to amplify our market and technology positions. These priorities set the foundation for the company moving forward, emphasizing operational excellence and enabling Rambos to further its position as a global semiconductor leader in high speed interfaces, memory buffer chips, and embedded security cores. In summary, We are renewing our focus on our core areas of expertise and are poised for success in our target markets and year on year growth in product revenue. We are creating the foundation for future profitable growth as we continue to fuel innovation, rollout products, improve operational efficiency and generate cash.
At this time we'll, considering questions from our shareholders, through our online portal. Okay. We're not seeing any. And we did not receive any questions in advance. So we'll go ahead and close the meeting.
I would like to thank you all for attending today's meeting and for the interest you have shown in the affairs of the company. We very much appreciate