“The Federal Trade Commission has begun an inquiry into whether two shared directors at Apple and Google amounts to an anti-trust violation, the New York Times reports.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson are on the board of directors of the two Silicon Valley heavyweights. While this in itself is not illegal federal law dating back to 1914 prohibits a person from being on the board of two companies when that would reduce competition between them.
Google and Apple are not major competitors: the former is a search, software and advertising company and Apple is all about hardware. But they are both in the smartphone business, even though the HTC handset powered by Google Android OS is dwarfed in popularity by Apple’s iPhone. They each also both market a browser (Chrome vs. Safari) and, in a broad sense, YouTube could be seen as a rival to iTunes as a vendor or music and music videos.
The inquiry is apparently in very early stages, sources tell the Times, and neither the two companies nor the FTC would comment. The law in question is rarely invoked, and even if this inquiry starts to boil the “interlocking” directors could just resign and being replaced.”
Reading Tea Leaves by Randy Wilson 
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