Today in Apple history: Google CEO resigns from Apple’s board

August 3, 2009: Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple’s board of directors amidst increasing competition between the two companies.

The root of the problem? The growing feud over Android’s encroachment on iOS as the two smartphone platforms battle for dominance.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple board

When Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board in 2009, it was more than just another Silicon Valley executive shuffle. His resignation marked the moment one of tech’s most influential alliances officially became a rivalry. As Google transformed Android into the iPhone‘s fiercest competitor, Schmidt’s dual role as Google’s CEO and an Apple director became impossible to reconcile.

His departure set the stage for a decade-long battle over smartphones, mobile software and the future of computing that continues to shape the tech industry today.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed the situation directly.

“Eric has been an excellent board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” Jobs said in a press release announcing Schmidt’s resignation. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses … Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s board.”

Schmidt’s tenure on the Apple board was not an especially long one. He joined on August 29, 2006, the year before the original iPhone’s launch.

“Eric is obviously doing a terrific job as CEO of Google, and we look forward to his contributions as a member of Apple’s board of directors,” Jobs said at the time. “Like Apple, Google is very focused on innovation and we think Eric’s insights and experience will be very valuable in helping to guide Apple in the years ahead.”

Apple and Google’s collision course

Both inside and outside the boardroom, Steve Jobs demanded loyalty from Apple board members. This occasionally led to accusations that they were not quite as independent and vocal as some would have preferred.

Bringing the head of a competing tech powerhouse into Apple’s business proved too challenging. Despite initially operating in different businesses, by the mid-2000s, there was considerable crossover between Apple and Google.

The most obvious area was the companies’ movement into mobile phones. However, Apple and Google also built rival web browsers (Safari and Chrome). They fielded rival photo software (iPhoto, which Apple replaced with the Photos app, and Picasa, which Google shut down in 2016 to focus on Google Photos). And they operated rival video services (iTunes and YouTube).

The companies were clearly on a collision course. It seemed clear that Schmidt, at some point, would need to decide between his two roles.

Close ties lead to antitrust worries

There was an additional reason for Schmidt’s resignation as well. Earlier in 2009, The New York Times reported that the Federal Trade Commission was investigating the close ties between the boards at Apple and Google.

The reason? A potential violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, which bars board participation from rival companies in cases where this could reduce competition.

Ultimately, the Apple-Google relationship became a lose-lose situation for all involved. If the two companies worked too closely together, regulators viewed it as a potential antitrust violation. If they competed against one another, Schmidt would need to step out of Apple board meetings for increasingly substantial periods during discussions of confidential matters.

Eric Schmidt and Apple’s ‘thermonuclear war’ on Google

In the end, Jobs likely regretted his decision to bring Schmidt on board in the first place. Not long after Schmidt left, Jobs threatened Google with “thermonuclear war” for allegedly ripping off the iPhone user interface for Android. With Schmidt having been on the Apple board during the development of the iPhone and iPad, Jobs felt he had let his guard down.

In some ways, this looked like a repeat of Apple’s relationship with Microsoft in the 1980s. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates worked on the Macintosh, only to turn around and release his suspiciously similar (and legally similar) Windows operating system a few years later.

Today, Apple and Google still partner up for certain things. Google still pays Apple billions of dollars a year for prime placement as the default search engine on the iPhone (an arrangement that drew antitrust scrutiny). And Apple turned to Google’s Gemini to power Siri’s desperately needed AI upgrade.