Google CEO Eric Schmidt says he will not resign his Apple board position despite a government inquiry¹.

谷歌CEO Eric Schmidt表明，尽管政府介入，他也不会辞退自己在苹果公司的职位。

 Google said it is in "discussion" with the FTC

The Federal Trade Commission is looking at a possible breach² of antitrust laws（反独占法） given Mr Schmidt's directorships（管理者职位） at Google and Apple.

Both companies have competing browsers³ and phone operating systems, leading to possible conflicts of interest.

But Mr Schmidt told reporters: "If there are issues on competitiveness, I recuse（要求撤换） myself."

He also said that it is well established that he leaves the boardroom whenever the discussion has anything to do with the iPhone.

When asked if he had considered resigning given the recent FTC interest, Mr Schmidt replied "it hasn't crossed my mind."

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"Antitrust devil"

Mr Schmidt's comments to news organisations, including the BBC, came ahead of his address to shareholders⁵ at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

During that briefing he also said he did not think the fact that Google and Apple share directors was a problem.

The role of Arthur Levinson, a former chief executive of Genentech, who is also on both boards is part of the FTC investigation⁶.

"From my perspective I don't think Google sees Apple as a primary competitor," said Mr Schmidt.

Google's legal team also told journalists that it did not see any conflict of interest.

"The law is clear that there is a safe harbour under the Clayton Act for companies that don't have overlapping⁷ revenue in different areas, and we're comfortable with that position," said the search giant's legal counsel Kent Walker

One shareholder⁴ attending the annual meeting did not seem to agree.

Speaking on behalf of the federation⁸ of labour organisations known as the AFL-CIO, Brandon Rees challenged Mr Schmidt to resign from Apple's board to avoid further government investigation.

"There is nothing to gain and a lot to lose. We don't want Google to become an antitrust devil like Microsoft did," said Mr Reese.

Mr Schmidt said he did not want to comment on any discussions or "rumours⁹ of an investigation" and that his presence on both boards was "both legal and proper."