Arthur Levinson

FTC to Google CEO, Apple: Nice Try

John Paczkowski in News on August 3, 2009 at 7:42 pm PT

Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board this morning was a nice gesture, but it’s not going to end the Federal Trade Commission’s investigation of the ties between the Google and Apple boards. In a statement issued this afternoon, the FTC applauded the move, but said the two companies are foolish if they think it will simply abandon its inquiry as a result.

Time to Give Up That Apple Board Seat, Eric

John Paczkowski in News on May 5, 2009 at 3:55 am PT

He had a good run of it, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s stint as an Apple director may be coming to an end. Now that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether the close ties between Apple’s and Google’s boards of directors violate antitrust laws, Schmidt’s seat on the former’s board, which he has held since August 2006, seems more trouble than its worth.

Sounds Like Steve Picked a Good Meeting to Skip

John Paczkowski in News on February 25, 2009 at 1:43 pm PT

Aside from a spontaneous “Happy Birthday” sung to an absent CEO Steve Jobs, Apple’s annual meeting today was something of a nonevent. Shareholders re-elected the company’s board of directors despite concerns about its handling of the disclosure of Jobs’s health problems. And the board continued to wave off questions about the company’s succession plans and Jobs’s well-being.