Chairman Eric Schmidt: Google's Relationship With Apple Has Improved

On Thursday, Google chairman Eric Schmidt revealed a surprising thing: Google's relationship with Apple has improved after many meetings, he said.

He praised Apple alongside Google saying, "These are two proud, well-run, different companies."

He was talking at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where the tech elite gather annually.

Google and Apple used to be much closer. Schmidt and Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs knew each other for decades. Schmidt was on Apple's board until Google released both the Android and Chrome OS operating systems to compete head-on with Apple's iPhone and its Mac PCs.

In 2009, Schmidt left Apple's board. And then the lawsuits began

Jobs described this falling out as a grand betrayal in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs. In the book, Jobs reportedly declared, “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

Schmidt always denied that there was open discord between himself and Jobs, so it's not surprising he's saying that things are better between the two companies now.

One side note. Apple's current CEO Tim Cook was at the event while Schmidt and other Googlers were on stage. But he wasn't in the room.

Reporter Jessica Lessin caught him hanging outside smiling and drinking a coffee instead of listening to Schmidt.

Tim Cook smiles while we chat with Googlers. He is happy to avoid the hot seat! #sunvalley13 pic.twitter.com/IaYpEjH68S

— Jessica Lessin (@Jessicalessin) July 11, 2013