Google boss to rethink Apple role

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 10 Jul 2009 at 08:23

Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt has admitted the launch of Chrome OS will require him to rethink his role on the Apple board.

Schmidt has sat on the Apple board since 2006, but has always justified his position by pointing to the fact that Google does not compete with Apple - despite the launch of the Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system.

However, Google's Chrome OS will bring it into direct competition with Apple, raising new questions about the relationship between the company. Schmidt believes he may have to recuse himself from Apple's board.

The US Federal Trade Commission is already looking into whether the ties between the boards violate antitrust laws. Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson are directors of both companies, despite the fact that under federal antitrust law, a person is not allowed to sit on the board of two companies if it may decrease competition between them.

Schmidt began recusing himself from Apple board meetings where the iPhone was discussed after Google launched its own Android mobile phone operating system.