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A five-year truce between rivals Alphabet Inc and Microsoft Corp came crashing down in 2020 when the tech giants found themselves at odds over their competing web-search businesses, according to testimony at the US government’s antitrust trial against Google.
After a decade of fights, the companies forged a non-aggression pact in 2016, wanting a fresh start to their acrimonious relationship. But three years ago, the situation began to fray, Jonathan Tinter, a Microsoft vice president of business development, testified in Washington.
Alphabet insisted that Microsoft place a Google search widget on the main screen of its Surface Duo touchscreen smartphone device in order to license the Android operating system, rejecting the software company’s request to use its own search engine, Bing, said Tinter, who negotiated the deal in the spring and summer of 2020.
Google also prohibited Microsoft from instructing users how to switch the default search engine to Bing, he said.
“Ultimately, for the Duo to be successful we needed the license from Google,” he said.
“We wanted the search entry points to be Bing. They wanted the search entry points to be Google.”
Tinter is one of several Microsoft executives to testify as part of the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella is expected to take the stand next week.
The government alleges Google has monopolised the online search market through contracts where it paid billions to Apple Inc and smartphone makers to make its search engine the default on browsers and mobile devices. Google has said consumers like its search engine and it’s easy to switch.
Microsoft and Google eventually reached a “compromise” on Duo for both search engines to appear on the device, Tinter said.
A search widget, the Chrome browser and the Google Search app would all be on the phone and use Google, while Microsoft’s Edge, the device’s default browser, would use Bing.
Microsoft began taking orders for the $1,400 dual-screen folding Duo in August 2020, marking the company’s return to the handset market following an ignominious retreat in 2016 after its acquisition of Nokia Oyj’s handset unit resulted in a costly writedown.
While it had some fans, the Duo fared poorly and within months Microsoft was already offering discounts on the product. Scarcely a year later it was selling for less than half the original sticker price.