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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) had offered to sell Bing to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in 2018, or form a joint venture related to the search engine, according to a post-trial brief recently made public in the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL).
The case refers to Google (GOOG) (GOOGLE) its alleged search monopoly and the methods it uses to secure its dominance, such as spending billions of dollars to make its search engine the default option on phones. Google maintained that it competed fairly.
Google (GOOG) told the court that Microsoft (MSFT) approached Apple (AAPL) in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2020 to make Bing the default option for its Safari browser.
“In any case, Apple carefully examined the relative quality of Bing compared to Google and concluded that Google was the better default choice,” Google (GOOG) said. “This is competition.”
Apple (AAPL) executive Eddy Cue said this was because Bing’s search quality was not as good as Google’s (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT) was not investing at “any level comparable” to Google.
Google (GOOG) also said that its search engine received nearly 80% of queries on Windows PCs in the United States, despite Bing being the default option on those devices.
Regarding Google (GOOG) as the default option in the Firefox browser, Mozilla had informed the Department of Justice that the search engine provided the best user experience, while Bing had “poor retention, lower search volume, and lower monetization rates.”
The Justice Department said Google (GOOG) spends more than $20 billion each year to pay for defaults and restrictive contracts. “Google has paid billions to block search queries, deprive rivals of scale, and impede the entry of innovative competitors.”