Microsoft’s Bing: The Search Engine Apple Just Couldn’t Buy

CNBC “In 2018, Microsoft Proposed Acquisition to Apple”
Revelation in “refutation material” Related to Google’s Antitrust Lawsuit
Apple, After Comparing Google and Bing, Ultimately Chose Google
Google “It’s Not Monopoly, Our Search Engine is Superior in Quality“

In 2018, Microsoft (MS) attempted to sell its search engine Bing to Apple, but Apple declined. This fact was revealed in the antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Google.

According to CNBC broadcast on the 25th (local time), Google submitted explanatory materials to the court about the “antitrust lawsuit” filed by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this month. It was reported that the materials contained evidence that they “did not hinder market competition or abuse a monopoly position.”

The U.S. Department of Justice previously filed a lawsuit alleging “Google paid billions of dollars to smartphone manufacturers, including Apple, to set their search engine as a default search engine on mobile phones and web browsers” and “this violated antitrust laws.”

In response, Google refuted this by citing that “MS tried to sell the search engine Bing to Apple.” Google argued, “It’s not that we hindered competition, but thanks to the superior quality of our search engine, consumer preference is high and market share too.”

Google claimed in the refutation document that “MS has repeatedly proposed to Apple to set its search engine Bing as the default on portable communication devices such as iPhones from 2009 to 2020” and “However, each time, Apple rejected this proposal citing quality issues with Bing.”

They continued, “After Apple reviewed the quality of both our Google and MS’s Bing, they chose Google,” and argued, “That’s real competition.”

According to related materials, MS also proposed to Apple in 2018 to acquire Bing or establish a joint venture related to Bing. However, it was reported that Apple declined this proposal.

In court documents, Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, stated, “Bing, which MS proposed to acquire, was not great in terms of search quality and investment,” and “Neither the search quality itself nor the investment was on par with Google. The method of generating revenue was also not good.”

While Google holds an overwhelming market dominance of nearly 90% in the search market, MS’s Bing is the third most popular search engine, with a market share of about 3%.

Apple has used Google as the default search engine for iPhones and other devices since 2002.