Microsoft may currently be making full use of its Bing search engine, thanks to its Bing Chat AI service, but it wasn't always that way. A new publication claims that a few years ago, Microsoft was in early talks with Apple about selling Bing to Cupertino, California.
A news from Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, claims that in 2020, Microsoft representatives had meetings with Apple's then-VP of Services, Eddy Cue, to suggest that Apple buy the Bing division.
However, the talks reportedly never progressed beyond the exploratory stage. The story claims that Apple had reasons not to go ahead with such a deal. The company was apparently very happy with the revenue it got from it Google using its search engine as the default on Apple devices such as the iPhone.
According to the publication, another reason the talks did not move forward was that Apple "also had concerns about Bing's ability to compete with Google in quality and capabilities."
In another Bloomberg publication attempting to cover Google's current antitrust lawsuit, it was revealed that in 2016, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss whether Bing should become the default search engine at program tourApple's Safari. Those talks went nowhere, as did another series of talks that took place in 2018, when Microsoft called for the switch from Google to Bing on Apple devices outside the United States.
