Sources say Microsoft considered selling Bing search to Apple in 2020

CTOnews.com, September 29 (Xinhua)-- Microsoft considered selling its Bing search engine to Apple as early as 2020, Bloomberg reported. If the acquisition happens, Bing will replace Google as the default search engine on Apple devices.

Microsoft executives met with Eddy Cue, Apple's head of services, to discuss a potential deal, but the negotiations were exploratory and did not make progress, the report said. Because Apple did not press ahead with the deal, the company made money from Google and worried that Bing would not be able to compete with Google in terms of "quality and capability."

Google's search engine has long been the default search engine on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Google pays Apple billions of dollars a year for this privilege, according to CTOnews.com, which last signed an agreement with Apple in 2021, driven by Cue.

However, the Apple / Google deal came under review this week as a result of an antitrust trial between Google and the US Department of Justice, which pointed out that Google's dominance of Apple devices proved that Google had a monopoly on search engines.

Eddy Cue must testify at the trial this week, explaining why Google is the default search engine for iPhone. "We made Google the default search engine because we always thought it was the best, and Apple did not choose other search engine providers because there was no 'effective alternative'."