Schmidt says shared Google-Apple board member should stay
Despite continuing pressure from regulatory agencies, and despite his own departure from the Apple board of directors, Google CEO Eric Schmidt says the other Apple-Google shared board member should stay put.
Even though there has been much ado about problems between his company and Apple recently, Google CEO Eric Schmidt now says that the board member who is shared by Google and Apple should continue to serve on both boards. Former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson has served on both boards for years and Schmidt says that he can see no reason why that situation should not continue, and that there is nothing even close to illegal in the sharing of the single board member, according to a Reuters story.
There has been talk of bad blood between Google and Apple since the two submitted contrasting statements to the FCC after Apple failed to approve the Google Voice app for the iPhone and an inquiry was held. In the approximate middle of that controversy, Schmidt stepped down from the Apple board of directors. Much has been made of that resignation, especially in light of the apparent rejection of the Google Voice app while other similar apps have been approved for sale in the App Store.
There is also the matter of increased areas of competition between the two companies, which made it difficult for Schmidt to continue to function as a normal Apple board member. Google’s development of the Android operating system for cell phones brings it into competition with Apple’s iPhone. The Google Chrome browser means that both companies market a Web browser, and Google is extending the Chrome system into an operating system for netbooks, which could be viewed as competition to OS X. Finally, there were just too many areas in which the two companies competed.
The Levinson situation is much different; he is mainly retired and in any case there was little in the way of competition between Genentech, Apple, and Google. All three competed in Silicon Valley for the same technical talent, but that is a minimal concern when compared to the line-of-business competition that came between Apple and Google. In the long run, Schmidt is probably correct on both fronts: he should have resigned from the Apple board, but Levinson should probably remain on both boards.
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