FTC to Continue Probe Into Google-Apple Board Ties

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 4, 2009 - 8:02am.

Washington - The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it will continue to investigate the connections between the boards of directors of Apple (NASD: AAPL) and Google (NASD: GOOG), despite Google CEO Eric Schmidt's announcement yesterday that he would resign from Apple's board. "We have been investigating the Google/Apple interlocking directorates issue for some time and commend them for recognizing that sharing directors raises competitive issues, as Google and Apple increasingly compete with each other," said FTC competition director Richard Feinstein. "We will continue to investigate remaining interlocking directorates between the companies."

While Google's Schmidt resigned from Apple's board, former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson still has a seat on the boards of both Google and Apple.

The consumer rights group Consumer Watchdog has called on Levinson to give up one of the board seats.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWBT01152520090803

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