Federal Trade Commission to Continue Investigation of Corporate Ties Between Apple and Google

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission today released a statement (via CNBC) commending Apple and Google for Google CEO Eric Schmidt's resignation from Apple's Board of Directors. The FTC, however, claims that it will continue to investigate the corporate ties the between two companies for potential anti-competitive activities related to "interlocking directorates".

On August 3, 2009, Apple announced that Eric E. Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google, was stepping down from its board. "We have been investigating the Google/Apple interlocking directorates issue for some time and commend them for recognizing that sharing directors raises competitive issues, as Google and Apple increasingly compete with each other," said Bureau of Competition Director Richard Feinstein. "We will continue to investigate remaining interlocking directorates between the companies."

As CNBC notes, former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson continues to serve on the Boards of Directors of both companies and former Vice-President Al Gore serves as both a director on Apple's Board and a "special advisor" to Google and Eric Schmidt.