Eric Schmidt Resigns from Apple's Board of Directors

Apple announced on Monday that Google's CEO, Dr. Eric Schmidt, has resigned from their Board of Directors. While there was little content in their announcement (it was only two paragraphs sans the company info paragraph at the end), it had been obvious for a long time that he had to go.

After all, the companies are starting to compete more and more against each other, and Schmidt had to recuse himself more and more often, because of that. Obvious examples include Android phones vs. the iPhone, Chrome vs. Safari, and the Chrome OS vs. Mac OS.

Not mentioned in the press release is the FCC investigation of the rejection of the Google Voice app from the App Store. You can probably imagine Steve Jobs saying to Eric Schmidt, "Look at the mess your company got us into!"


Or something along those lines. At any rate, if Apple had more transparent rejection procedures, maybe the FCC would not have stepped in. Whether or not that little bruhaha had anything to do with it, or what was really said, he's gone.  And at any rate, here's what Apple said in their press release:

Apple® today announced that Dr. Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google, is resigning from Apple's Board of Directors, a position he has held since August 2006.

"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."