Google’s Schmidt Leaves Apple Board, “Let the Battle Begin” Google and Apple

With Apple’s 1 billion dollar data center and Google’s Schmidt on the Apple board, I was speculating on whether Google was having any influence on the data center construction or servers.  With the recent media coverage of FCC inquiry.

FCC Opens Inquiry of Apple's Ban of Google Voice

By FAWN JOHNSON and AMY SCHATZ

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission has launched an inquiry into why Apple Inc. rejected Google Inc.'s Internet-telephony software for the popular iPhone, another sign of the Obama administration's stepped-up scrutiny of competitive practices in the technology industry.

In letters sent late Friday to the two companies and AT&T Inc., the FCC asked why Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone and removed related applications from its App Store. The letter also seeks information on how AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier, was consulted in the decision, if at all.

Document

The FCC's letter to Google asks for a description of the Google Voice application and whether Apple has approved any other Google applications for its store.

The attorney’s at Google and Apple must have figured out it was time to part ways.

Google's Schmidt Leaves Apple Board

Apple Inc. said Monday that Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.'s chief executive, is resigning from the Apple's board and cited the growing overlap of the two companies' businesses.

Mr. Schmidt has been a board director since August 2006.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said Mr. Schmidt had been an "excellent" board member, contributing considerable time and ideas.

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Note the statement from the official press release.

“Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.”

Even though Schmidt was excluded from recent meetings, how much did he learn about Apple’s business model, and be able to modify Google’s?

It will be interesting as time plays out.  With Apple’s ads targeting Microsoft,  I wonder how long it will be before they need to have ads targeting Google?

If I was the Apple board I would fear Google more than Microsoft.  Bet you it won’t be long before we see executives/engineers leaving Apple to Google.  It’s been a long time since an Apple employee left to join Microsoft.

I am heading down to the bay area, and this will be a fun one to speculate on what is next.

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First 5 comments on TechHermit’s last post - Christian Belady, me, Rich Miller, Urs Hoelzle, and Mike Manos

TechHermit’s last post has 5 comments now. 

It’s too bad TechHermit couldn’t see these comments from Christian Belady, me, Rich Miller, Urs Hoelzle, and Mike Manos.

If you haven’t had a chance to visit http://techhermit.wordpress.com/, you may want to check out what Shane McGew wrote in the past that got all of our attention.

  1. I was devastated by this news….through his blog he had become both a friend and industry pundit.. I found TechHermit a very objective voice of reason in an industry of very subjective opinions. His refreshing candidness made his blog my favorite read. I will certainly miss him immensely and I think the industry will as well. Anytime there is industry news, his blog was the first place I would go to see what his opinion was…and usually they made me smile because he put the “moose on the table”. He truly had a gift in that.

    My sympathies go to his family during this difficult time.

    by Christian Belady July 30, 2009 at 2:53 pm

    Reply

  2. It is sad to hear this news as I felt TechHermit was one of my avid readers, and another person who shared a passion for transparency of what is going on in the industry. I will miss his contributions and discussion as TechHermit was not a media person and wasn’t blogging from a company perspective.

    An example of how we leveraged conversations ishttp://techhermit.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/individual-versus-the-collective/

    I am writing my own blog entry. My condolences go out to to the family for their loss.

    by Dave Ohara July 30, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    Reply

  3. William, please accept our condolences on your loss.

    Your dad’s insight and passion, as given voice through Tech Hermit, had real value in the data center industry. This was clearly reflected in the fact that the leading technologists from Microsoft and Google – the world’s largest and most successful companies – were regular readers and commenters here at Tech Hermit. We’ll miss him.

    by Rich Miller July 30, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    Reply

  4. I am very sorry about your loss, William. I’ve never met your dad in person, but as Rich says many of us at Google had been following his blog, and had no idea of his illness because he sure stayed sharp until the very end. He may have been late to the Internet, but his voice was heard and will be remembered.

    -Urs

    by Urs Hoelzle July 31, 2009 at 2:36 am

    Reply

  5. William,

    I am deeply saddened by this news. I loved the candor and as Christian put it, his ability to put the “moose on the table”. You could always count on him to give you his perspective. Sometimes he was dead on, sometimes a little off, but always the most interesting voice out there. This is a huge loss to our industry.

    Mike Manos

    by Michael Manos July 31, 2009 at 2:49 pm

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$145 Mil Microsoft’s data center support costs for Yahoo deal

Seattletimes blogger Brier Dudley has a post on a slip at Microsoft disclosing the Yahoo deal.

Brier Dudley's Blog

Brier Dudley offers a critical look at technology and business issues affecting the Northwest.

Blog Home | E-mail Brier| 206.515.5687 | RSS feeds Subscribe | Twitter feed | Microsoft Pri0 blog

July 30, 2009 at 10:03 AM

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Microsoft slip? Return on Yahoo deal, costs revealed in confidential slide

Posted by Brier Dudley

A particularly interesting slide was released at Microsoft's analyst meeting. It included "context" about the Yahoo deal and was marked "not for disclosure."

In other words, the slide had the secret internal analysis of what the Yahoo deal means to Microsoft, including details that weren't revealed in yesterday's announcement or today's presentation to analysts.

It was included in the slide deck briefly available for download from Microsoft's investor site but wasn't shown during Steve Ballmer's speech.

Among the details:

"Net: We will lose money the first two years ($300m total) then start making a decent return ($400m steady state)."

Microsoft also expects total transition costs of the deal to be $600 million to $700 million ("up to $200m could hit us in 2010"), according to the slide.

yahoo.jpg

For the data center audience if you zoom in on this slide you can see how much the data center costs are to support the Yahoo search deal. The third line is the GFS COGS/Support of $145m.

image

oops!

What is GFS?

Global Foundation Services (GFS) is the engine that powers Microsoft’s Software Plus Services strategy. We focus on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide.

The GFS leadership team is committed to delivering the strategy and the foundational platform for the company’s Software Plus Services infrastructure worldwide that supports our Online and Live services such as MSN and Windows Live, communications and collaboration services, and over 200 additional enterprise services and Web portals. Helping to mindfully shape the next era of computing, the senior leaders in GFS hold over 80 US technology patents and have a combined total over 130 years of industry experience in building and managing infrastructure technology networks, security, product development, and global operations. Their backgrounds include expertise in industrial, electrical and mechanical engineering, power and cooling architecture and design, research and development, and business operations and administration.

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Microsoft, Yahoo Close to Search Deal

WSJ reports that Microsoft and Yahoo are close to sealing a a search partnership to compete against Google.

Microsoft, Yahoo Near Search Deal

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO and NICK WINGFIELD

Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are moving toward sealing a search partnership, say people familiar with the matter -- a deal that ends a protracted dance and unites the pair against Google Inc.

Microsoft, which had made a failed $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo, appears to have finally won a piece of what it wanted from the Internet player -- the volumes of search queries that run through Yahoo's engine.

Ballmer

In exchange, Yahoo is getting an opportunity to expand its own position in the market by remaining a force in search-advertising sales.

The agreement, which could be reached as soon as Wednesday but could be delayed, involves Yahoo agreeing to use Microsoft's Bing search engine on its own sites, these people say.

In a shift from earlier discussions, Yahoo would handle selling the text ads that appear next to the search results for its sites and some Microsoft sites, say these people.

The financial arrangement and terms under consideration couldn't be learned.

I wonder if the Yahoo folks who joined Microsoft’s data center group were used to help instill confidence at Yahoo in Microsoft’s data center infrastructure.

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What is the First Greenpeace Data Center Target? Apple? Google? Microsoft?

Datacenterknowledge blogs on how quickly Apple is building its $1 billion dollar data center.

Apple Moving Quickly on NC Project

July 28th, 2009 : Rich Miller

apple-ncApple is known for keeping its new technology secret prior to launch. So it’s not surprising that the company has had little to say about its $1 billion data center project in North Carolina. The new iData Center may not get the fanfare of a MacWorld keynote when it launches, but one thing is clear: Apple plans to move quickly to the construction phase.

“It’s my understanding that they want to have bulldozers on-site in mid-August,” said Scott Millar, execurtive director of the Catawba County Economic Development Corp. “They’re moving ahead rapidly with permitting and acquiring the land, with the intent of hitting the ground running.”

And, after writing my own blog entry on Greenpeace’s painting “Hazardous Products” on HP’s roof , the same PCWorld points out how successful Greenpeace has been in modifying Apple’s environmental position.

Greenpeace's aggressive tactics may turn off a lot of people, but they do get results. In 2006 the group launched an all-out PR war on Apple, which at the time was using PVC and BFRs in many of its products. Fast-forward to 2009, and Apple's new computer lines are virtually free of these toxic chemicals.

While Cupertino didn't exactly play nice with Greenpeace, there's little doubt the environmental group's constant badgering had an impact on Apple's green policy.

How can Greenpeace, not already have a plan in place to address Apple’s data center for its environmental impact?

Now, you could say Greenpeace why not go after Google or Microsoft?  Greenpeace could, but why haven’t they already.  It is not worth it for media coverage.  Going after Apple would get people’s attention.

If not Apple, who else makes sense to go after if you were Greenpeace?

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