Inside Google

Following
the resignation of Google chief executive Eric Schmidt from the Apple
board in August, Levinson has resigned his director position.

Mr. Levinson, who is also chairman of biotech company Genentech, had been a Google board member since April 2004. Former
US vice-president, Al Gore, is the last remaining link between the two
companies as he serves on the board of Apple and is an adviser to
Google.

John
M. Simpson, consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog, said: “We’re
pleased that Arthur Levinson finally realised that serving on both
Google’s and Apple’s boards were untenable. It took too long, but he
finally did the right thing.

Consumer
Watchdog, a non-partisan, non-profit advocacy group, had called for the
former Genentech chief executive to resign from one of the boards in
August, when Google Chairman Eric Schmidt stepped down from the Apple
board, according to Reuters.

BBC
News reported that the move was welcomed by the US Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) which has been probing overlapping board memberships
as under US law, no-one is allowed to serve on the boards of two
companies which are direct rivals. The FTC had been investigating
whether Apple and Google had violated anti-trust laws by sharing two
directors.

FTC
chairman John Leibowitz said in a statement that both firms and Mr
Levinson "should be commended for recognising that overlapping board
members between competing companies raise serious anti-trust issues".