Microsoft entered negotiations to sell Bing to Apple in 2020

After losing default search status to Google in 2017, Microsoft discussed selling Bing to Apple in 2020, but talks fizzled out.

The Google antitrust bench trial continues to reveal details about its relationship with Apple and how it affected other companies. Microsoft executives say Apple used Bing as a bargaining chip, but more details have emerged from anonymous sources.

According to a report from Bloomberg, Microsoft floated the idea to sell Bing to Apple in 2020. Negotiations were made with Apple SVP Eddy Cue, but they apparently never left the exploratory phase.

Bing had been the default search engine on Apple products from 2013 to 2017, but Google took over from there. The revenue share deal with Apple eliminated Bing's ability to compete, even when Microsoft made drastic offers.

Eddy Cue was on the stand on Tuesday, and he said Google was the only option for Apple because it was, and is, the best search engine option. The company also isn't interested in creating its own search engine to compete with Google, which explains why Apple avoided buying Bing.

Apple and Google's financial relationship is under a lot of scrutiny from the US Department of Justice. It's part of a greater antitrust investigation meant to determine if Google is using its money and power to keep the competition from getting a foothold.

22 Comments

plalonde 2 comments · 1 Year

About 1 year ago

Eddy should not be happy with this news after his testimonial earlier this week saying the opposite...

Apple executive Eddy Cue is expected to testify in court that the company has no plan to make an "Apple Search" engine, because its deal with Google is the best for users.

spheric 2702 comments · 9 Years

plalonde said:

Eddy should not be happy with this news after his testimonial earlier this week saying the opposite...
Apple executive Eddy Cue is expected to testify in court that the company has no plan to make an "Apple Search" engine, because its deal with Google is the best for users.

Why? This was three years ago. They have dropped the idea.

davidw 2112 comments · 17 Years

plalonde said:

Eddy should not be happy with this news after his testimonial earlier this week saying the opposite...
Apple executive Eddy Cue is expected to testify in court that the company has no plan to make an "Apple Search" engine, because its deal with Google is the best for users.

You're not keeping up. That was what some of the media were saying what Eddy Cue was expected to say. This before Eddy Cue actual testimony.

This was what he actually said when he took the stand, according to AI .........

>Eddy Cue was on the stand on Tuesday, and he said Google was the only option for Apple because it was, and is, the best search engine option. The company also isn't interested in creating its own search engine to compete with Google, which explains why Apple avoided buying Bing.<

See any reason why Eddy Cue should be unhappy?

>Bing had been the default search engine on Apple products from 2013 to 2017, but Google took over from there. The revenue share deal with Apple eliminated Bing's ability to compete, even when Microsoft made drastic offers.<

I don't know where they got that idea from. According to this ....

https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/united-states-of-america

Bing wasn't able to compete with Google even when they were the default search for Apple from 2013 to 2017.

The way I look at it, the importance of the "default" position is now way over blown when it comes to market share. If the "default" was that as much of a factor with regards to gaining market share as some are saying, then MS Edge and Bing should have much more than low single digit market share because they are the defaults on about 70% of the World desktop computers.

https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/

The fact that users can now easily change their "defaults", being the original installed default is no longer as meaningful as it was when MS IE was the default browser on Windows computers (in the mid 90's and early 2000's) and changing the default wasn't always that easy (thanks to MS).

danvm 1475 comments · 9 Years

davidw said:

>Bing had been the default search engine on Apple products from 2013 to 2017, but Google took over from there. The revenue share deal with Apple eliminated Bing's ability to compete, even when Microsoft made drastic offers.<

I don't know where they got that idea from. According to this ....

https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share

https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/united-states-of-america

Bing wasn't able to compete with Google even when they were the default search for Apple from 2013 to 2017.

The way I look at it, the importance of the "default" position is now way over blown when it comes to market share. If the "default" was that as much of a factor with regards to gaining market share as some are saying, then MS Edge and Bing should have much more than low single digit market share because they are the defaults on about 70% of the World desktop computers.

https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/

The fact that users can now easily change their "defaults", being the original installed default is no longer as meaningful as it was when MS IE was the default browser on Windows computers (in the mid 90's and early 2000's) and changing the default wasn't always that easy (thanks to MS).

I still think defaults still important for Google, considering what they pay to Apple. If not, they would pay nothing to Apple and expect most customers to change to Google Search on their devices.