ON TIES THAT BIND GOOGLE AND APPLE?

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

(Update:  The NY Times has a more detailed article on this story).

Techmeme is abuzz with the news of Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt joining Apple's Board of Directors, led by a story by Om Malik, titled "Worries for everyone".  And Valleywag already has a tongue-in-cheek "Six Effects..." list on the implications of the appointment, not to mention the "Gapple" logo shown on the left.

Apple and Google already share a director on their respective boards (Arthur D. Levinson, Chairman and CEO of Genentech).

Niall Kennedy outlines some additional ties (italicized comments in parenthesis below mine):

"The group was already interconnected outside of the Apple boardroom.

(Apple board member) Al Gore is a Google advisor and Google invested in Current TV, Gore's television station.

(Apple board member) Bill Campbell (former Chairman and CEO of Intuit) was an early management advisor to Larry Page and Sergey Brin and helped hire Eric Schmidt."

Furthermore, Google board member Ann Mathers, served as Executive VP and CFO of Pixar from 1999 to 2004, working closely with then Pixar CEO Steve Jobs (Pixar is now a party of Disney following it's acquisition with Steve serving on Disney's board).

Despite all the cross-connections, observers should temper their speculation on what this may mean for a "Google + Apple" vs. Microsoft battle, and other possibilities. 

Examples include Valleywag concluding, “this has to be a lousy day at Microsoft HQ”, and Internet Financial News suggesting Apple may be grooming Eric Schmidt to be Apple CEO following Jobs' recent fight with pancreatic cancer and recent options related financial restatements.

More often than not, board assignments between companies simply mean what they are...board assignments of individuals DESPITE their companies.  So I'm sympathetic to Paul Kedrosky's view on this one, and agree with Don Dodge when he says:

"Eric Schmidt is a great choice for a board seat at Apple, but I wouldn't jump to conclusions about where that might lead each company."

Having said that, I do hope Eric helps Apple fix it's dotMac (.Mac) service, which as regular readers know has been a pet peeve of mine for a while.

Ooh, ooh, and while they're at it, give us a Google powered Apple iTunes phone, of course. 

Sorry, Paul, Don, couldn't help myself there.  :)

Comments

[Ward]

yeah, Arthur Levinson is both boards so maybe they'll both merge with Genentech.