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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.'"
I like GigaOM's take:
I also hope this translates into more Mac-friendliness 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".
If Schmidt were still at Sun, they might have some hope of long-term survival. Kudos to Apple for getting him on the board.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
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?
This post gets my vote for the "Most fitting poster name" of the year award.
The laws of probability forbid it!
... just threw a chair.
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
...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.
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.
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.
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) requires that at least half of a corporation's board be from outside the company for that very same reason.
The reason you see executives and board members serving for different companies generally has to do with them knowing something about running companies. Why should it be illegal for a qualified person to make use of their experience and skill?
Methinks you just don't know anything about corporate governance.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/screenshots/Sc reenshots%20Funstuff/apple_weed.jpg
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.
Yes, "Get Microsoft" is their shared similar values
29 mpg. YMMV.
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?!
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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.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith