Microsoft reportedly pitched Apple on buying Bing to no avail::Apple and Microsoft met in 2020 about the possibility of a Bing acquisition, according to a new report. But the talks never went anywhere beyond the exploratory stage.
Microsoft reportedly pitched Apple on buying Bing to no avail::Apple and Microsoft met in 2020 about the possibility of a Bing acquisition, according to a new report. But the talks never went anywhere beyond the exploratory stage.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But the talks failed to progress beyond the exploratory phase, indicating that Apple’s top brass — including Eddy Cue, who was involved in the meetings — never seriously pursued the idea.
Testimony in the ongoing FTC antitrust suit against Google has made clear that Apple has never given much thought to replacing the leading search engine as the default on iPhones.
Apple is believed to take in upwards of $20 billion annually as part of the arrangement that secures Google’s position as the default search engine on iOS and iPadOS.
None of this is to say that Bing hasn’t had its chances: as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman notes, Microsoft’s engine was the default for Siri and Spotlight searches for several years, starting with iOS 7.
There were meetings circa 2016 between chief executives Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on a potential new deal that would have led to monumental change, but it never panned out.
Apple and Google most recently extended their deal in 2021, so Microsoft’s pitch the year before was likely an attempt to throw a wrench into those renewal plans.
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