Google Slipped Apple $1B to Show Search Bar

Both companies freaked out that figure paid for iPhone display was disclosed
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 22, 2016 10:00 AM CST
Google Slipped Apple $1B to Show Search Bar
In this June 24, 2012, file photo, a customer checks out his new iPhone 4 outside of an Apple store in Chicago.   (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)

An Oracle copyright lawsuit against Google offered up a coveted nugget about Google and another big company. Rumors have circulated for some time about how much Google pays Apple to keep its search engine bar as the default on the iPhone, and a transcript from the Oracle court proceedings now puts that number at a staggering $1 billion for 2014, Bloomberg reports. Apple also gets to keep a percentage of revenue that Google makes via the iPhone, with an Oracle attorney revealing at the Jan. 14 hearing that the figure was "at one point ... 34%"; that figure came from Oracle's pretrial questioning of a Google witness, though it's not specified whether that's the percentage Google kept itself or shelled out to Apple.

The transcript captures a Google attorney's response: "That [34%] percentage just stated, that should be sealed. We are talking hypotheticals here. That’s not a publicly known number." Both Google and Apple filed to have the court transcript sealed and redacted; Google explained that its release publicly could hurt its future negotiations with other companies. Bloomberg reports "the transcript vanished without a trace from electronic court records" about 6pm EST on Thursday. Reps from both Apple and Google declined to comment, per Bloomberg. (Here are some of the things we Googled in 2015, state by state.)

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