May 08, 2009

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google executives acknowledged Thursday that the Federal Trade Commission was inquiring about the antitrust implications of the ties between the boards of Google and Apple.

But they said they did not believe that the boards’ sharing of two directors — Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, and Arthur D. Levinson, the former chief executive of Genentech — was a problem.

From my perspective, I don’t think Google sees Apple as a primary competitor,” Mr. Schmidt said in a meeting with reporters ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting.

Mr. Schmidt said that if there were areas of competition between the two, he would recuse himself from discussions. He added that it was well known that he typically recuses himself from Apple board discussions related to the iPhone.

Google makes an operating system for cellphones called Android, and the companies overlap in other areas, including browser software and online distribution of video. Mr. Schmidt said he had not considered resigning from the Apple board because of the F.T.C. inquiry.

Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, described the interactions with the F.T.C. as “discussions” and added that he was comfortable that Google and Apple were in compliance with the law. Antitrust rules prohibit companies from sharing directors if they compete in areas that account for more of 2 percent of their revenue.

The F.T.C. action is the second antitrust inquiry involving Google to surface in recent weeks. The first involves a proposed settlement between Google and book publishers and authors over the company’s Book Search service. Mr. Schmidt said he was not surprised by the increased of scrutiny of Google, given the company’s size and success. .