Levinson quits Google's board

From CNET News.com: Arthur Levinson, former chairman of Genentech, has resigned from Google's board of directors, effective immediately, Google said Monday. A member of Google's board since 2004, Levinson has also served on Apple's board since 2000.

In early August, Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board of directors.

No specific reason was given for Levinson's exit, but there likely was some degree of pressure to leave one of his two board roles behind. With government probes and competition heating up between Apple and Google, juggling jobs on both company boards had turned into a hot-button issue.

In May, the FTC opened an investigation reportedly to determine if serving on both Apple and Google boards was a violation of antitrust law. Schmidt's August resignation from Apple's board came amid calls for him to resign. At the time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that as Google enters more of Apple's core business, Schmidt would have had to recuse himself from too many meetings due to conflicts of interest.

Apple and Google have found themselves in the midst of conflict lately. The FCC is currently investigating if and why a Google Voice app for the iPhone was given a thumbs-down by Apple, triggering a he-said, she-said squabble between the two companies.

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