Apple-Google shared director quits Google board
Arthur Levinson, formerly of Genentec, who has been on the board of directors of both Apple and Google, has chosen to resign from the Google board but will be staying on with Apple.
Arthur Levinson, founder and former chairman of Genentech, has resigned from Google’s board of directors, effective immediately. Google’s announcement of the resignation came this morning. Levinson has been a member of Google’s board since 2004, and has also served on Apple’s board since 2000. The other board member that was shared between the two boards, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, resigned from the Apple board in August.
Much has been made of the shared-board-member situation, both in the press and by securities regulatory agencies. The Federal Trade Commission opened an investigation in May, reportedly to determine if members serving on both Apple and Google boards was a violation of antitrust law. Schmidt’s August resignation from Apple’s board came amid calls for him to resign. At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that as Google enters more of Apple’s core business, Schmidt would have had to recuse himself from too many meetings due to conflicts of interest, according to a CNET story.
No specific reason was given for Levinson’s resignation, but there was almost certainly some degree of pressure for him to leave one of his two board roles. With government probes, especially by the FCC, and competition in several areas heating up between Apple and Google, juggling responsibilities on both company boards had turned into a critical issue. It is not known how Levinson decided from which board to resign.
The biggest factor pushing him to resign at all, however, was undoubtedly the multiple areas of competition cropping up between Apple and Google. Both companies have operating systems for smartphones, the iPhone OS for Apple and the Android operating system for Google. Both companies have Web browsers, Safari for Apple and Chrome for Google. Apple has OS X, a full-blown operating system for personal computers, and Google is developing an operating systems for netbooks. Eventually, it must have become difficult for both Schmidt and Levinson to chart an ethical course between issues brought on by their dual board memberships.
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