Google has severed another tie with Apple amid a Federal
Trade Commission inquiry into the alleged anti-competitive nature
of board-level links between the two companies.
Google announced that Art Levinson, who has sat on the boards of
both companies for five years, is to leave his post at the internet
group with immediate effect, reported the
Financial Times.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Google chief
executive Eric Schmidt said he did not believe Levinson needed to
give up his directorship at either company.
Schmidt resigned his position on the Apple board two months ago,
also after saying that he had no intention of doing so.
Levinson's departure ends direct board-level ties between the
two companies, but there are still some high-level overlaps.
For example, Apple board members former US vice-president Al
Gore and Intuit chairman Bill Campbell continue to be senior
advisers to Google.
But industry analysts predict Gore and Campbell will also be
forced to sever ties with Google because the competition between
the two companies has made their role at Google inappropriate.