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We all saw it coming and today Apple confirmed it. Dr. Eric Schmidt (Google CEO), has resigned his 3 year position on the Apple board of directors.

Apple PR statement:

“Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “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.”

We all know “mutual agreement” really means “I fired him, but we’re staying on good terms”. So it looks like Apple weren’t too happy with Google’s recent Chrome OS announcement, and with Android picking up steam it’s easy to see the conflict of interest.