Google, Apple Sever One More Shady Corporate Link

Eric Schmidt’s resignation from the Apple board made it pretty clear—as did the FTC—it was time for Apple and Google to sever corporate ties. That didn’t stop Art Levinson from clinging to his joint board membership until today.

Levinson was, until recently, the Chairman and CEO of genetic research firm Genentec. But lately, he’s been spending a little more time on other projects — namely, sitting as a Corporate Director for both Apple and Google. The FTC made it pretty clear back in May that they were uncomfortable with such cosy ties between companies that are increasingly working on the same stuff, at the same time—phones software, web services, and now even OSes—so Levinson’s resignation firmly qualifies as “kinda tardy”.

What interesting this time around is that this time around, the companies were essentially fighting for talent: As CEO, Schmidt was obviously going with the home team. Levinson, though? He was a free agent. Score one for Apple, I guess. And score 10 for the FTC. [AllThingsD]