Google paid Apple US$1b in '14 to keep search bar on iPhone

JAN 22, 201611:02 PM

[SAN FRANCISCO] Google Inc paid Apple Inc US$1 billion in 2014 to keep its search bar on the iPhone, Bloomberg reported, citing a transcript of court proceedings related to a copyright lawsuit filed by Oracle Corp against the search giant.

Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, gives Apple a percentage of the revenue it generates through the iPhone but details of the arrangment have never been made public.

Bloomberg, citing a transcript of the Oracle-Google pretrial last week, reported on Thursday that a Google witness had revealed that the revenue share was 34 per cent at one point.

However, it was not clear whether that percentage represented the amount kept by Google or paid to Apple, the report said. The court transcript that was the source of the Bloomberg report is no longer available online.

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In its lawsuit, Oracle is accusing Google of using its Java software without paying for it to develop Android.

An Oracle lawyer had told a court hearing that Android had generated revenue of about US$31 billion and profit of US$22 billion since its release in 2008.

Google said in a court filing on Wednesday that the Android disclosures should not have been made public, and asked the court to place them under seal.

Google and Apple could not be reached immediately for comment on Friday.

REUTERS