ArthurLevinson
Latest
Art Levinson discusses the post-Jobs era
Art Levinson summed up his experience as chairman of Apple's board of directors since Steve Jobs passed in one word. "Weird," said Levinson who spoke on Tuesday at Stanford's Graduate School of Business "I'm still not to the point where I walk into that boardroom and don't miss Steve," Levinson added. According to a report in Fortune, Levinson talked about a wide range of topics covering his relationship with Jobs, his role as the chairman of Apple's board and his management style at Genentech. Though there are changes at Apple under Tim Cook, Levinson is optimistic about the company in the long run. "There [are] long-term signs of how a company is doing and whether or not Apple sells 47 or 48 million iPhones -- let somebody else worry about that," he said. You can read more about Levinson's talk in the article on Fortune and view people's reactions on Twitter. [Image from Sten Tamkivi]
Two Apple officials cash in some stock
Just in time to purchase a new yacht or luxury home for the holidays, a pair of Apple officials just sold some of their company stock in exchange for cold, hard cash. According to SEC filings released by the company, Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell sold 2,438 shares of AAPL at about US$549 and another 2,700 shares for about $550 per share. The sale of shares last Thursday netted Sewell about $2.8 million. Sewell had also sold 5,137 shares of AAPL stock on November 1, pulling in more than $3 million. Apple Chairman of the Board Arthur Levinson also sold shares last Thursday. He let go of 7,500 shares valued at $560.65 for a payday of $4.2 million. Why are they selling some of their shares? Who knows. It could be to avoid paying taxes at an expected higher rate in 2013, or they might just need the cash to buy some holiday gifts.
Apple announces changes to its board: Arthur D. Levinson named Chairman, Robert Iger joins
Apple has just announced some changes to its board of directors, including the appointment of a new non-executive chairman: Arthur D. Levinson. Currently Chairman of Genentech Inc., Levinson has been a co-director of Apple's board since 2005, having first joined the board in 2000. He'll be welcoming new board member Robert A. Iger, who you may know as the President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Levinson "has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000," and that his "insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders." On Iger, Cook said: "Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board," further noting that "his strategic vision for Disney is based on three fundamentals: generating the best creative content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, and expanding into new markets around the world which makes him a great fit for Apple." The official press release is after the break.
Arthur Levinson departs Google board amid FTC probe
We kind of doubt the departure of Genentech's former chief executive from Google's board of directors will close all of this out in the FTC's eyes, but if you were curious about the impact of said probe, here's your answer. Just two months after Google's Eric Schmidt peaced out from Apple's board due to a "conflict of interest," Arthur Levinson has left Google's board for presumably the same reason. Schmidt is still obviously fond of Sir Levinson, noting that he has "has been a key part of Google's success these past five years," and while he's exiting the board, he'll "always have a special place at Google." So, now that all of this is cleared up, can we finally move on without worrying that the aforementioned search giant will buy up the world's remaining inventory of dark fiber, fuse into Apple and create a telepathic iPod that would rule the world until the dawn of the Robot Apocalypse?[Via New York Times]
Apple / Google relationship being investigated for antitrust violations
The relationship between Apple and Google has always been pretty cozy -- Mac OS X and the iPhone tie into a variety of Google services, Google's developed rule-breaking iPhone apps, we've heard endless whispers of Apple meddling in the development of the G1, and on and on. In fact, the relationship between the two companies is so tight they actually share board members: Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson take meetings in both Cupertino and Mountain View. That's apparently raised some hackles at the Federal Trade Commission, which has reportedly informed both companies they're being investigated for violating a rarely-enforced section of the Clayton Antitrust Act prohibiting "interlocking directorates" when it reduces competition. That sounds like someone at the FTC just noticed that Apple makes the iPhone and Google's responsible for Android, but nothing's set in stone yet -- and we've got a feeling Android's open-source codebase could throw a monkey wrench into an already-complex legal analysis. We'll obviously be tracking this one closely, keep an eye out.
