Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt is taking a government inquiry into his role on Apple Inc.’s board in stride, expressing confidence that the probe won’t find any evidence that the ties between the two companies throttle competition in mobile phones and other technology fields.
In a media session held Thursday before Google’s shareholders meeting in Mountain View, Schmidt said he hasn’t considered stepping down from Apple’s board because he doesn’t view the maker of the iPhone, iPod and computers as a “primary competitor.” He echoed that sentiment when a shareholder later asked him to step down from Apple’s board to avoid further government scrutiny.
Google attorney Kent Walker confirmed the Mountain View-based company is in talks with the Federal Trade Commission about whether its overlapping board relationships with Apple violates federal antitrust laws. The inquiry was reported by The New York Times earlier this week.
Both Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson are directors at Google and Apple.
Walker told reporters that Google is “comfortable” that it doesn’t generate enough revenue in the same markets as Apple for Schmidt’s and Levinson’s dual roles on the companies’ boards to violate antitrust law.
Google makes most of its money from online advertising driven by its market-leading search engine. But it is the chief architect of an operating system called “Android” that already runs some mobile devices similar to the iPhone. Android also is going to be in some low-cost computers, called “netbooks,” later this year.
Schmidt, who joined Apple’s board in 2006, told reporters he always recuses himself from all Apple board discussions involving the iPhone, but doesn’t avoid talks about any other subject.
Cupertino-based Apple and Google also both make Web browsers that are vying to lure users away from Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer and the Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox. As its YouTube video site expands, Google also…