Google’s CEO leaves Apple
Apple have today announced that Eric Schmidt who is the CEO of Google and a member of the board of directors at Apple has stepped down from his position at the company. Schmidt has held the prestigious position since August 2006 and says that he is leaving the job because conflicts of interest arose.
These “conflicts of interest” arose around 15 months ago when Google started making their way into Apples territory such as announcing their upcoming Chrome OS and the recent debacle over Google Voice being denied into Apple’s App Store.
An official statement from Apple read:
“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”
To be honest readers, I don’t find this too surprising. Schmidt was being asked to leave certain meetings at Apple when they were discussing plans that could be used by Google. This is no kind of behaviour to be going on in one of the world’s biggest companies. He will be replaced by a more effective person who will not have conflicts in other businesses with Apple.
