Google Inc. says a board member who is also a director of computer maker Apple Inc. is stepping down, removing a potential conflict of interest as the two companies look to compete more directly.

Arthur Levinson, chairman of the biotech company Genentech Inc. and a Google board member since April 2004, is stepping down effective immediately.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Levinson has been "a key part of Google's success these past five years" but offered no specific reason for the departure.

Still, the announcement Monday follows Schmidt's own decision this summer to leave Apple's board. That move came shortly after Google unveiled plans for a personal computer operating system that would compete with Apple's Mac computers.

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