Google CEO Joins Apple's Board

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on August 29, 2006

Apple and Google each got a little bit cooler today as Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple’s board of directors. Schmidt brings a lot to Apple’s board: A long resume of tech company management experience, and a direct insight into exactly what Google has in its pipeline. In the Apple press release, he cites Apple as “one of the companies I most admire.” Schmidt’s joinging the board increases Apple’s total number of directors to eight, and among those, seven are outsiders, though its a bit of a stretch to call Fred Anderson, Apple’s longtime CFO an “outsider.”

If anything, I hope the closer ties between Apple and Google result in Google becoming more Mac-friendly, not that it isn’t already, but 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. Schmidt’s presence on the board certainly isn’t going to hurt on that note.

Plus it’s certainly interesting to see Apple and Google getting friendlier when you consider their relative competitive positions against Microsoft. And, this move comes just a day after Google and eBay announced a tie-up concerning advertising and click-to-call advertisements. Is there a growing anti-Microsoft front?

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