Big tech merger rumors are nothing new. Some result in billion-dollar PR nightmares, some are leaked and never amount to anything, while others stay within the confines of an exec's email account or group chat.
The latest failed Silicon Valley tie-up is an interesting one: In 2020, Apple entertained the idea of acquiring Microsoft's Bing search business and using it to replace Google as the default search engine on iPhones.
As Bloomberg reports, Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Services, met with Microsoft execs in 2020 to discuss the possibility of buying Bing. Talks didn't get very far, and Apple ultimately stuck with Google as its smartphones' default search engine. But it's notable considering the US government's current antitrust trial against Google, at which Cue testified this week.
On the stand, Cue said Google's tech was superior to Bing's and suggested it would be a disaster to lose Google on the iPhone.
As Bloomberg notes, the Apple-Google search tie-up dates back to 2002 for the Mac web browser, and the deal is now worth billions.
As the AP reports, Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft’s chief of advertising and web services, testified separately that the Bing sale was a ruse by Apple to drum up extra money in its deal with Google. "It is no secret that Apple is making more money on Bing existing than Bing does," he said. Microsoft's browser was used in Apple's Siri and Spotlight services from 2014 to 2017 before Apple switched everything back to Google, Bloomberg notes.
The U.S. Justice Department is saying that the types of exclusivity deals that Google has with Apple are part of why the search engine is so dominant. Google also maintains exclusivity deals with Samsung, Firefox, and other web browsers in order to be the default option everywhere. The Justice Department argues that such agreements are monopolistic practices designed to stomp out any competitors.
The trial is set to last about three months, according to NPR. The last time the government went after a tech company for monopolistic practices, it was the Microsoft trial in 1998. Microsoft lost that court battle.