Apple Directors to Discuss Filling Eric Schmidt’s Chair

Apple is believed to have planned a directors’ meeting for next week to discuss possible replacements for the board seat recently vacated by Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.

In a statement issued last week, Apple’s CEO revealed what pretty much every tech-focused analyst had predicted that Google’s newly announced OS would pose a threat to Apple. Last month, Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, said, “I think this is a threat,” referring to Google’s initiative of rolling out the Google OS. The Cupertino-based company later issued a press release confirming that Dr. Eric Schmidt had resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors, due to competition reasons.

Citing “one person close to Apple,” the WSJ also informs that Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook may be appointed to the board sometime soon, but it is unclear whether directors will consider adding Mr. Cook to the board at next week’s meeting. Cook has been praised for carrying out day-to-day activities at Apple in the absence of an ill Steve Jobs, making him a contender for the CEO seat, some say.

Apple’s board meets at least four times a year, the site adds, going by disclosures on Apple’s web site. Besides Chief Executive Steve Jobs, other board members currently include Intuit Chairman Bill Campbell, former Vice President Al Gore, Avon Products CEO Andrea Jung, former Chrysler finance chief Jerome York, J. Crew Group CEO Millard Drexler and Genentech Inc. Chairman Arthur Levinson.

The same report goes to outline that the Mac maker’s board has been criticized for being too dependent of Steve Jobs, the company’s iconic CEO, with half of the company's six outside directors having served for at least a decade. This, experts say, is too long to maintain their independence from the CEO of a company, the WSJ informs.

"The biggest danger is that the board will be unable to truly take the perspective of the shareholder and will feel beholden to the CEO or unwilling to confront the CEO," said David Nadler, a corporate governance specialist with Oliver Wyman Consulting, cited in the report.