Recently Google CEO Eric Schmidt went on Fox Business News to do an interview about why the search engine company is going on a hiring spree again. Interviewer Neil Cavuto and Schmidt had a general converation about mobile devices and the economy too. Cavuto pointed out that Google is “taking over the world” and some people are starting to fear the company. Cavuto pointed out that this same thing happened to Microsoft. “Hopefully we won’t repeat the mistakes that Microsoft made 10 years ago that ultimately led to all these things that happened to them,” said Schmidt in the interview.

Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt earned a BSEE in 1976 from Princeton University. Now he’s giving back a lot more to Princethan than he did in tuition money back in the 1970’s. Eric and his wife Wendy are donating $25 million to the Princeton in order to create an endowment fund for supporting technology research. The new endowment is called The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.

The Fund will give away awards for peer-reviewed competitions. “The Schmidt Fund will be used to support the invention or implementation of entirely new technologies that will have a major impact on a field of research or to acquire a piece of equipment or an enabling technology that will change the direction of research in a field,” stated Princeton in a press release.

Schmidt is on the board of trustees at Carnegie Mellon University and Princeton University. Schmidt was an advisor to Barack Obama during his presidential campaign.

Apple may have decided to reject Google Voice, but Verizon Wireless plans to embrace the application. Google and Verizon have an Android partnership and the results of this deal will appear in the next few weeks. The first two Android powered phones will be available on Verizon later this year.

“You either have an open device or not, and this will be open,” stated Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam in a conference call with journalists today.

“In Verizon, somehow, the leadership has decided to embrace a very different philosophy, which works very, very well with the Internet,” added Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the conference call. Verizon and Google started their partnership discussion about 18 months ago. Verizon was the third telecommunications company to launch a phone on the Android operating system. T-Mobile and Sprint were the first two companies. Verizon is the largest wireless carrier based on the number of subscribers.

On August 3, Eric Schmidt stepped down from the Apple Inc. Board of Directors due to conflicts of interest. This Tuesday Apple’s Board of Directors will be meeting to discuss some of the possible replacements of Schmidt.  Schmidt had been an Apple Board member for about 3 years.

Some of the other board members include Intuit Chairman Bill Campbell, Avon Products CEO Andrea Jung, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, Chrysler finance chief Jerome York, J. Crew CEO Millard Drexler, and Genentech Chairman Arthur Levinson.

It would not surprise me if Apple appoints someone highly involved in the Internet application or cloud computing space considering that Schmidt’s company is one of the best in that sector.

A former Google employee and informant with TechCrunch has reported that when Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on the Apple Board of Directors, the two companies agreed not to poach from each other.  Google Inc. has been hit pretty hard by Facebook poaching their employees and Palm Inc. recently installed a former Apple executive as their CEO.

The agreement was never made official or written, but it was an understanding.  The understanding was even made clear to Google’s recruiters according to the TechCrunch informant.

The primary reason why Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from the Apple Board of Directors was due to the increase in competition between the two companies.  After Schmidt joined the Board of Directors, Google announced a new browser, a mobile operating system, an application store for their mobile phones, and an upcoming operating system.  Apple has all of these products and services themselves.

Apple did not pay Eric Schmidt for being a board member, but he did receive several Apple products as compensation.

Google Voice was rejected by iTunes last month.  The FCC is looking into the reasoning why Google Voice was rejected as of right now.  Since the Google Voice application was rejected, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from the Apple Inc. Board of Directors too.

Instead of designing another iPhone application for Google Voice, the search engine company is planning to launch a web-friendly version of Google Voice for the iPhone.  The web version of the application will have the same features as the rejected application.  The web version of the application will work exactly like the iPhone application and can even have an icon installed on the phone.

If Apple and AT&T decides that they want to block the web version too, then the only way to prevent the service is by blocking the URL.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens next between Apple, Google, and AT&T.

[via Mashable]

On August 3, Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple’s board of directors.  What was Schmidt’s actual compensation throughout his time on Apple’s board? Schmidt joined Apple’s Board on August 29, 2006 and since then he has made about $8,700 in Apple products, not cash.  Schmidt was also given a $7,500 commemorative gift.

But the partnership that Apple and Google have made throughout the last couple years have been worth more than money.  Google search, Google Maps, and YouTube are all default applications on the Apple iPhone.

Schmidt was not given any stock options either.  However Schmidt decided to buy Apple shares on the open market.  Schmidt bought 10,000 shares in Apple in September 2006.  At the time it would have costed $740,000 for that many shares.  Buying the same number of shares now would cost $1.7 million.

[via Gizmodo/BusinessWeek]

In June 2008, Eric Schmidt mentioned that the intensity of rivalry between Google and Apple is heating up.  Schmidt said that the rivalry might cause him to be dethroned.  Around May 2009 Schmidt said that he was not planning to step down from Apple’s Board, but today he has stepped down.

The reason why Schmidt stepped down was because he said he had to recuse himself from big portions of Apple Board meetings to avoid conflicts of interest.  “Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board,” stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs.  Schmidt had joined the Apple Board of Directors in August 2006.

This resignation took place at a time when the Federal Trade Commission decided to investigate whether Google’s ties with Apple may discourage competition.  Google is the default search engine and YouTube is a default application on the Apple iPhone.

Google has the following competing products with Apple.  Google is developing a Chrome operating system which will end up competing with the Mac OS.  Phones powered by the Google Android operating system compete with the iPhone.  Google Android Marketplace competes with the iTunes App Store.  The Google Chrome browser competes with Apple Safari and they both use Webkit.  Apple iWork software competes with Google Docs.

Google has reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that they have invested $2.6 million in the genetic testing startup 23andMe as part of a Series B round of funding.  23andMe was co-founded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s wife Anne Wojcicki.

It is uncertain whether the deal was made directly through Google or through their Ventures subsidiary.  The $2.6 million round of fund was part of a $12.6 million Series B round.  The other $10 million came from Sergey Brin’s personal wealth of $12 billion.  This brings 23andMe’s total funding to about $21.6 million.  Other investors include Genentech, New Enterprise Associates, and Mohr Davidow Ventures.

Google owns a minority interest in 23andMe and also plans to lease space to the genetics company.  Google wrote in the filing that they took measures to ensure the decision before investing to make the agreement was free of conflict of interest.  Sergey Brin was not part of the investment discussions according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

[via BusinessInsider/NYT]

It looks like Google executives are in high demand for graduation commencements seeing as how CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at the Carnegie Mellon graduation commencement on Saturday. Earlier this month, Google co-founder Larry Page spoke at the University of Michigan commencement.

Larry Page’s speech took a more personal approach where he talked about how his parents met and what was life like growing up in Michigan. Eric Schmidt decided to take an approach where he talks about the past, present, and future of technology.

What I liked about Larry Page’s speech is that many of the people that came from Michigan are very proud of where they come from especially because of the struggle that the state is having with unemployment rates. The automotive sector in Michigan carries a legacy and everyone in Michigan knows someone that is associated with that industry. This is why it made sense why Page focused on a more personal speech while Schmidt could focus on technology in Steel City (Pittsburgh).

[via TechCrunch]

In August 2006, Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple’s Board of Directors.  This was a time before Google decided to get into the mobile operating system sector.  It was reported in the past that Schmidt was dismissed from iPhone-related meetings at Apple after Android was launched.  Now the government is wondering whether Schmidt’s involvement on Apple’s board throttles competitions in the mobile phone market.

Bear in mind that YouTube and Google Maps are the default applications and Google.com is the default search engine on the iPhone.  This past Thursday, Schmidt stated at a shareholders meeting that he isn’t planning on stepping down from Apple’s Board any time soon.  Google does not generate enough revenue in the same market as Apple to consider Schmidt as violating antitrust law.  Google makes most of their money from advertising sales.

A shareholder that asked Schmidt to quit Apple believes that Schmidt’s involvement on the board of directors may eventually cause headaches for Google.  “There is no reason for it because it isn’t adding any value for shareholders,” stated Brandon Rees, a rep for AFL-CIO’s holdings in Google. “There is really nothing to gain and a lot to lose. We don’t want Google to become an antitrust devil like Microsoft did.”

A major case that Schmidt had to deal with in the past was whether a Google-Yahoo! advertising partnership would be possible.  The U.S. Justice Department refused to let that sort of partnership slide so eventually it was scrapped.

Yesterday Google announced that they will be placing ads on Google News’ search results in the U.S.  This means if you search for keywords such as the iPhone or the Kindle, you will notice results for sponsored links from websites such as BlackBerry.com, att.com, Amazon.com, and SonyStyle.com.

“We’ve always said that we’d unveil these changes when we could offer a good experience for our users, publishers and advertisers alike, and we’ll continue to look at ways to deliver ads that are relevant for users and good for publishers, too,” stated Josh Cohen on the Google News Blog.

Google was debating whether to put ads on news.google.com for about 6 years.  They were skeptical before because of criticism from newspaper publishers.  Content from Google News is aggregated from various blogs and online newspapers.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has reiterated that the search engine company is a friend of newspaper publishers.  Google’s own Adwords and AdSense business depends on newspaper publishers and other content publishers.

“When Eric Schmidt says he worries about the newspaper industry, it’s crocodile tears,” stated Brian Tierney CEO of the parent company for The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News.

William Dean Singleton, CEO of MediaNews Group has a difference of opinion with Tierney.  MediaNews is the parent company of about 54 daily newspapers including the San Jose Mercury NEws and The Denver Post.  He says that newspaper companies don’t have to let Google take content, but opt to do so because it drives traffic.

Reuters says that they will be watching Google News closely as they don’t have any licensing agreement with them.  “We are certainly not surprised by the move, which places Google News in a position to compete with news publishers — giving us cause for concern,” stated Alisa Bowen, SVP for Reuters.

[via New York Times]