Investing a large part of a corporate pension fund in the company's own shares turned out to be a particularly bad idea: when Enron went bust, many of its employees lost their entire pension entitlement.

ECONOMIST: The history and future of pensions

GE's power business and a seemingly overfunded corporate-pension fund, the firm's best days now looked to be behind it.

ECONOMIST: General Electric

Anne Simpson, head of corporate governance at Calpers, the Californian state pension fund, urged Apple to "keep calm and carry on" with the changes it had proposed, and not to be swayed by "side conversations with a single shareholder".

CNN: Apple shareholders in protest vote on pay