Google CEO Joins Apple's Board

Phooey42 writes "AppleInsider is reporting that Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, has been approved to join Apple's board of directors, bringing the board's total head-count up to eight. From the article, 'Schmidt also sits on Google's board of directors and Princeton University's board of trustees. He joins other Apple board members that include: former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore Jr.; President and CEO of Harwinton Capital, Jerry York; Chairman and CEO of Genentech, Arthur Levinson; Chairman and CEO J. Crew, Millard Drexler; Chairman and former CEO of Intuit, Bill Campbell, former CFO of Apple, Fred Anderson; and Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.'"

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[Duds]

It's an implication that the two comapanies share similar values which in itself offers us some kind of glimpse into the future direction of both.

Re:Hunh. And this matters why?

[PHPfanboy]

Yes, "Get Microsoft" is their shared similar values

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[Anonymous Coward]

I can understand that you don't read TFA (this is Slashdot after all), but not reading the post... come on, it's not about technology exchanges what they talk here, is the *board of directors*!.

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[zavou]

yes, and the importance of the board of directors is not very important really in the decissions of the companies, specially in the technological ones.

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[hey!]

I don't think anyone can say for sure why this matters.

One thing is certain: Schmidt, acting as CEO of Google, cannot do anything which benefits Apple to the detriment of Google. Nor can he do anything as a board member of Apple that benefits Google at Apple's expense. He may have to recuse himself from certain decisions at Apple; for example if Google decides to launch a music service, he exposes himself legally if he

Clearly, Schmidt was hired because his experience Internet technologies brings a certain

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[Chimera512]

"Clearly, Schmidt was hired because his experience Internet technologies brings a certain viewpoint and expertise to the Apple board:"

well Al Gore invented the Internet, so I don't know what they need this guy for.

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[hey!]

well Al Gore invented the Internet, so I don't know what they need this guy for.

Yeah, and Jews poison wells and use the blood of Christian infants in their religious observances.

Some lies, like the blood libel or the one about Al Gore supposedly claiming he "invented" the Internet, never seem to lose their ability to charm people of a certain mentality.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm, google is losing money? [google.com] Amazing the shear amount of fud here. Yahoo is slowly losing revenue and profits while Google increases. BTW, MS is selling fewer units, but has an increase in total sales $ and profits. It is good to be a monopoly.

Re:Oh hell no.

[SeekerDarksteel]

This post gets my vote for the "Most fitting poster name" of the year award.

Good for Google, good for Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

The summary may as well have linked to the actual press release [apple.com].

I like GigaOM's [gigaom.com] take:

Even though Google is being overtly aggressive about online video market, it is trying to leverage its advertising network more than download sales. Is it too hard to imagine - watch the video on Google Video, and download it on iTunes store? Both parties win? iTunes being included as part of Google software pack, or part of Google Toolbar? Google driving music-related searchers to iTunes store?

Google must be paying handsomely for those searches emanating out of Safari browser (about 3% of the total market) and a soft alliance could help balance the books. In other words, Google gets paid for referring customers to the iTunes music/video store.

I also hope this translates into more Mac-friendliness [businessweek.com] from Google: "it did take Google a little while to let Safari users log into Gmail, for instance, and it did take Google Earth a little while to come out for the Mac".

Re:Good for Google, good for Apple

[bunions]

> it did take Google a little while to let Safari users log into Gmail, for instance

Yeah, because there was -no- javascript debugger for Safari until very recently. Don't blame Google, blame Apple.

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[slughead]

> Yeah, because there was -no- javascript debugger for Safari until very recently. Don't blame Google, blame Apple.

I had to put a 'no safari' stamp on one of my web software solutions because I was unable to debug safari. Sometimes things wouldn't work and no error would be thrown. Finally, there's some description of the problem.

Nothing beats firefox though--most of the time you can click on a link in the debugger and it'll show you the problem in source.

Re:

[Pink Tinkletini]

Google Earth still hasn't come out for Mac. Sure, it runs on OS X, but only like Frankenstein runs the Idiotarod [precisionaccidents.com]. It's nowhere close to being a Mac application in philosophy or interface.

On the bright side, several months ago I heard Google was looking for Cocoa developers. And they recently hired Doug Bowman, the stopdesign guy, which can only improve the company's heretofore crippled sense of aesthetics. Anyone got news on more recent developments?

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[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Google Earth still hasn't come out for Mac. Sure, it runs on OS X,

Dumb. Think about what you're saying for a second. By that logic, Apple hasn't released quicktime or itunes for windows.

Re:

[cirisme]

Except, on Windows, it's normal for a media player to be their own UI entity. Just look at WMP and Winamp and all the other media players, none of the popular ones use Windows' chrome.

Re:

[Pink Tinkletini]

Well, yeah, dude. Just trying to make a point.

Today they added another member of the board

[sgant]

In a stunning move sure to send ripples across the tech industry, Apple today announced another member to it's Board of Directors. That person? You guessed it: Frank Stallone.

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Goggle-ization of Apple...

[__aaclcg7560]

I knew Google was taking over the world, but I never suspected that Steve Jobs would let them into the Board Room. Of course, this is the same guy who had a larger-than-life video image of Bill Gates gloating over him. What's next, GoggleDisney?

Re:

[jellomizer]

Google has helped Apple emensly. Think about it. Giving Mac Users to search he internet for Apps and stuff. Web Applications that work on their computers. Google has made a world that is not as depentant on windows. And Now people can decide what OS they like better.

Steve Ballmer...

[5plicer]

... just threw a chair.

Hmmm....

[linguae]

...with all of the chairs being tossed around by Steve Ballmer (according to Slashdot), you'd think that Microsoft ran out of chairs by now.

Re:

[NoGuffCheck]

you probably think the google-ebay deal was about advertising revenue. it was just to secure a supply of chairs for the upcoming carnage over at redmond.. with balmer pre-occupied with an endless supply of chairs to throw, google and apple will be free to take over the world! muhahahaaarrrggh!

Your sig (there is):

[IANAAC]

If only there were a girl that was like this OS [apple.com] in my life..

http://www.digibarn.com/collections/screenshots/Sc reenshots%20Funstuff/apple_weed.jpg [digibarn.com]

Re:Hmmm....

[wbren]

...you'd think that Microsoft ran out of chairs by now.

They only have one chair left [microsoft.com], and I don't think that even Ballmer has the balls to throw him across a room.

Nah.

[antdude]

Maybe Microsoft has a secret factory to produce more chairs. [grin]

Re:

[suv4x4]

...with all of the chairs being tossed around by Steve Ballmer (according to Slashdot), you'd think that Microsoft ran out of chairs by now.

I swear that tossing chair jokes ARE NOT FUNNY ANYMORE .

Re:

[FirienFirien]

They just re-use chairs. It's like product testing - if it doesn't break, use it again.

...maybe that should be "If it doesn't break enough, use it again"

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[mgblst]

Well the good thing is that he can't throw very far.

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[jellomizer]

The chair doesn't always need to break. You can reuse them. Logic Plain and simple.

What does it mean?

[4D6963]

Good news I guess, but what does it really mean? I wish the article would go into further details and speculated on the implications of this..

Well if anyone who knows what they are talking about wants to explain what it means for Google, for Apple, for the market/industy and also if someone can explain what Al Gore is in that thing for and what he does, well feel free to explain..

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[account_deleted]

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[4D6963]

Thanks for this link, here have a virtual Informative point ;-). Eric Schmidt to be the CEO of a merged Apple-Sun? heheh, Dvorak will never cease from making me laugh. However, that one article wasn't quite as laughable as the one about Elvis having predicted the dot-com crash.

Re:It means the Mac is becoming The Man. Cue PC us

[Silicon Jedi]

Mod Parent Redundant, it's a cut and paste comment from another apple column.

Re:It means the Mac is becoming The Man. Cue PC us

[4D6963]

Awesome! An off-topic Mac fanboy troll.

Keep it real, cuz I can tell you're not a poseur, yo!

lol.

Re:

[rylin]

Damn commie, go back to cuba!

Re:

[Preacher X]

IF you look into the history of corporate america you will realize that current and past executives serve on the boards of many many companies. This is nothing new and never has been. In fact, alot of todays companies would not exist if not for such things. I am willing to bet you own little to no stock at all. If you did you would realize just how foolish your comment was. Saying that someone should be tied to only one company is like saying a stockholder should be able to only buy stake in one compa

PP may not have said it quite right...

[IANAAC]

but when someone sits on more than one board (as opposed to a regular stockholder) in the same industry, it tends to cause conflict of interest.

I once worked for an online retailer in their IT dept., and can tell you the board was full of executives from all over the retail industry. Lots of back room dealing, scratching each others backs. When one company cuts a deal for another company in the same business, it's usually not with good intentions.

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[Lambticc]

Sure, that is exactly what we need. The government needs to tell private businesses how they should be run. How about the government tell us what to drink, wear and what we should watch on TV too? Maybe, successful people create successful businesses.

Re:What's up with CEO's serving on boards?

[LifeNLiberty]

Is capitalism a new concept for you or something? If that offends, you, go start a business that adopts different practices, until then, this is how they want to run it. Not saying I like it but they were the ones succesful enough to end up in these positions to begin with, they can let in whomever they want.

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[Anonymous Coward]

If someone is involved in one company, it should be illegal to be involved in another. Any time power concentrates it's bad for the people.

This is a contradiction. If the board of directors of a company was comprised entirely of persons from within the same company, that would be an even greater concentration of power. There is basically no point in having a board that is responsible for overseeing itself. If I remember correctly, Sarbanes-Oxley (the Act designed to prevent another Enron or WorldCom) re

Re:

[monoqlith]

This allows for an insane power concentration and it also solidifies and protects the "old boys club". That's not something we should stand for as people and citizens. If someone is involved in one company, it should be illegal to be involved in another. Any time power concentrates it's bad for the people.

Don't be silly. It's our government that does that, not being on more than one board.

If you want the burgeoning aristocracy to stop forming, elect some officials to the federal government that actually car

Re:

[brian.reading]

In a free market society, power is checked quite easily by consumer organization. If you disagree with their business practices, don't buy their products.

Re:

[trifish]

How about monopolies or de-facto monopolies? How will you "not buy" their products?

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[brian.reading]

Microsoft is considered a de-facto monopoly by most. Since when does everyone on earth own a Microsoft product?

Re:

[Millenniumman]

For real monopolies it can be hard. For some things, you can just not buy the product, but you probably want electricity. Now, building a well or water reclamation/ putting up solar panels isn't but it isn't impossible. The thing is that if a monopoly abuses its position too much, those options become feasible.

By as for near/de facto monopolies, it is often quite simple.

Microsoft -> Linux/OS X
Cable company -> Satellite/IPTV
Telephone -> Cable, Cell Phone, Fiber Optic
etc.

There's really no business yo

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[account_deleted]

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[nerdsv650]

>jcr wrote:
>Thank goodness that legislation takes more than one pig-ignorant prat's decree.

I assume you live on the moon or some equally remote location, if you look around here in the US or anyplace else I can think of there is NO evidence at all to support your assertion.

-michael

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[account_deleted]

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The Coming of The Anti-Microsoft?

[tecnopa]

I wonder if there could be a merger looming in the next 5 - 10 years.... doubt that it could happen any time soon but it's an interesting idea.

Al Gore

[mqduck]

Al Gore is on the board at Apple? Wasn't there an article recently about how Apple was one of the least environmentally-friendly tech companies?

Re:

[bursch-X]

Al Gore is on the board at Apple?

Since quite a while. He actually was one of the people demonstrating the then new video-chat capability of iChat AV together with Steve Jobs.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:

[HuguesT]

As far as I'm aware, Greenpeace had little to do [wired.com] with this story, more like grassroot protesters [zdnet.co.uk] and Apple's own shareholders, who rightly said Dell and HP had both better policies. Apple did appear with a bad score in a Greenpeace report [macsimumnews.com], but that's one voice amongst many.

Recycling is important, Apple is flush with cash and rides on the image of a modern, innovative, user-friendly company. It should be recycling more, but doesn't. In particular, currently its recycling program is limited to the continental [apple.com]

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[Anonymous Coward]

Recycling is important, Apple is flush with cash and rides on the image of a modern, innovative, user-friendly company. It should be recycling more, but doesn't.

Through taxes, I pay for Hazardous Waste Disposal pickups that happen several times a year. They accept computers and will take care of the "recycling" part.

Why should I have to pay TWICE for this service (once in taxes, and once in the price of a new PC)?

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[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

More like Greenpeace wanted some attention, and decided to get it by bashing a company that gets a lot more press than they do.

1) Strawman. Please debate points in the report, not attack the authors.
2) Greenpeace didn't criticise Apple any more than they criticised any other low scoring company.
3) If Greenpeace's methodology was flawed, it was flawed across all companies. Apple scored very low on the same criteria other tech companies performed well on.

I agree with the GP. Gore should put his money where hi

Al Gore...

[7Prime]

Ahhhh! So THAT'S why the PowerBook was featured in An Inconvenient Truth [rottentomatoes.com] so much! I wondered if there was some sorta Apple endorsement being made by Al Gore. It seems that it may not be quite as much the normal product placement, as Al really is a part of Apple. Interesting... Way to go Al!

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[2nd Post!]

Does it matter that Al Gore uses Macs at home?

I mean, if a person owns an iPod and then uses it at work, is that product placement, or endorsement, or is it, you know, using the tool to get the job done?

Al Gore uses his PowerBook and Keynote to do his presentations.

No surprise that Dvorak thinks this is possible

[tyrione]

NeXT and SUN do not have fond ties. Steve in his own words, "SUN is no Apple." If you think Steve is going to let someone else fuck up the momentum he has created you need to check yourself into an asylum.

Re:Women?

[kestasjk]

A board is about meeting the corporations objectives, and members are voted in based on their ability to help meet those objectives. If the shareholders vote someone into the board based on ability alone, that's no more discrimination than an olympic coach choosing 100m runners based on ability and ending up with Kenyans.

Are you saying the shareholders should try and vote a woman onto the board just because there aren't any women in there at the moment? That's real discrimination (positive or negative, it's all bad).

If there was a 50:50 ratio of men to women, then what? Should there be representatives of all religions, skin colours, programming language preferences, etc?

Nevermind if they can meet corporate objectives, are their genetalia representative of the population?!

Re:

[pookemon]

"than an olympic coach choosing 100m runners based on ability and ending up with Kenyans"

Kenyans are long distance runners...

(Granted for /. readers 100m probably is long distance.) ;)

Re:

[Princeofcups]

> Are you saying the shareholders should try and vote a woman onto the board just because there aren't
> any women in there at the moment? That's real discrimination (positive or negative, it's all bad).

You would be correct in an idealized world with an equal playing field. But the fact is that it is called the old "boys" network for a reason.

jfs

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

I guess HP should never have booted Carly Fiorina.

If you look around, there are actually quite a few female board members. Anyway, the way to combat discrimination isn't more discrimination.

Re:

[Scudsucker]

You would be correct in an idealized world with an equal playing field. But the fact is that it is called the old "boys" network for a reason.

Yes, because the "old boys" were ambitious workaholics who proved themselves, and the women...weren't. The "glass ceiling", much like the "wage gap" and "1 in 4 women will be raped" is a feminist urban legend with no basis in reality. If women want to be VPs and CEOs, they need to bust their butts and prove themselves. Take Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox - did not take

No minorities

[Shivetya]

Does not appear to be any minorities on the board at Apple.

Not saying that there should be, just using google for images on the names resulted in none being obvious.

Re:

[Bentov]

Hmm, I would be interested in seeing any links you have on this. I know about Gore, but didn't know about Jobs....they do have black ipods and laptops now..damn you may be on to something...