After Levinson, Apple-Google Infighting Likely Rises (GOOG, AAPL)

The board of director infighting may be heating up between Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).  First it was Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt leaving, or being forced out, of the Apple board of directors.  But now it is a change over at the Google’s board of directors as Arthur Levinson is stepping down effective immediately.  That may be the last of the board issues between the two companies, but this is effectively a sideshow to the real competition between these two giants.

No reasons were given for the departure here, but the obvious reason is that these two companies are no longer just co-existing competitors of Microsoft and/or Yahoo!.  The fight is still going over voice applications and over operating systems, and is probably a fight that is far from over.

After comparing the two boards, Arthur Levinson is the last technical overlap.  Former Vice President Al Gore is an Apple board member, and the most recent data we have seen still lists Gore as a “senior adviser” to Google.   The growing competition over voice and operating systems will likely make the resignations from the boards a sideshow to the real competition that is heating up.

JON C. OGG
October 12, 2009