US-based technology giant Google has been dealing with an antitrust lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice for some time. The Ministry claims that Google acts anti-competitively to keep itself at the top of the internet search industry. As you might guess, Google denies the accusations. However, as the litigation process continues, we have the opportunity to better understand what is happening between the technology giants.
In this context; Recent news has revealed that Microsoft and Apple have held several meetings for Bing. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft tried to sell Bing to Apple in 2020. However, it would be more beneficial for Apple to receive higher amounts from Google instead of purchasing Bing. This being the case, the agreement fell through.
Where did all this come from?
What happened dates back almost 10 years ago. Maybe some of you remember; Apple and Microsoft made an agreement to use Bing in Spotlight searches with Siri between 2013 and 2017. At the end of 2016, Microsoft wanted Bing to be the default search engine in Safari and made efforts to achieve this. However, Apple was also negotiating with Google in parallel with its talks with Microsoft, and the offer was better. Google would pay a portion of the advertising revenue it earned from the iOS ecosystem to Apple. It was “easy money” for Apple. As such, Apple accepted Google’s offer, expanding it to include Siri and Spotlight searches. The partnership between Microsoft and Apple ended…
In 2020, Microsoft knocked on Apple’s door once again. This time the offer was Bing himself. The meeting, which was also attended by Eddy Cue, one of Apple’s senior executives, was only for “exploration”, according to Bloomberg. Apple ended this conversation with a negative response. The reason for this was that the income generated from Google was already satisfying the company. Additionally, Apple had legitimate concerns about Bing. It was not believed that Bing could compete with Google.
Even CEOs got involved
Jon Tinter, a Microsoft senior executive, provided more information about the scope of the meetings in his testimony at the latest hearing. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also arranged a private meeting with Tim Cook in 2016, according to the executive’s statement. Nadella’s goal was to replace Google with Bing. So Bing would become the default search engine of the iOS ecosystem. However, there were some important details at this point.
According to Jon Tinter, Microsoft had to open its wallet to convince Apple, and investors were not very keen on this idea. Anyway, Apple didn’t want to buy Bing and cause “trouble”, so to speak. At the end of all this, no agreement was reached…
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