Microsoft Corporation MSFT CEO Satya Nadella is scheduled to testify on Monday in the ongoing Google antitrust trial as part of the Justice Department’s case against Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL search division.
What Happened: The DOJ has alleged that Google’s search division maintained a monopoly through annual payments of $10 billion to secure its search engine as the default choice on mobile devices and web browsers.
However, Google has vehemently denied these allegations, which led to a contentious courtroom showdown.
To substantiate its claims, the DOJ is leveraging testimonies from key figures within Microsoft, including Nadella, to illustrate how even a corporation of Microsoft’s magnitude and resources struggled to challenge Google’s dominance, reported Bloomberg.
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In a preceding session last week, Microsoft’s business development executive, Jonathan Tinter, testified that the company failed to secure a deal to feature its Bing search app on Apple Inc.’s AAPL products despite offering more favorable terms than Google.
Instead, Apple renewed its partnership with Google.
Tinter also said that Microsoft’s Surface Duo smartphone was compelled to use Google search due to licensing requirements for the Android mobile operating system, leaving Bing with limited access to its own devices.
Nadella, a key figure in Bing’s development, was directly involved in discussions with Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, regarding these issues, making his testimony highly anticipated, the report noted.
Why It’s Important: While Bing has made gains on desktop computers through integration with Microsoft’s browsers, its mobile presence has lagged, with Google still dominating the landscape.
In the past, Microsoft has also explored selling Bing to Apple as a potential alternative default search engine for iPhones, although the deal never materialized.
During this ongoing antitrust trial, DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, also criticized Google, citing the difficulty of switching the search giant’s platform to his privacy-centric search engine.
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