A Verizon Communications Inc. executive told a judge that when the company recently renegotiated Google’s deal to be the default search engine for customers’ mobile phones, the telecom carrier didn’t bother seeking out alternatives offered by Microsoft Corp. or DuckDuckGo.
“I’m not aware of us soliciting bids,” Verizon’s Brian Higgins said Monday during an antitrust trial in Washington to determine if Alphabet Inc.’s Google maintains a monopoly in the online search business. He didn’t say why Verizon failed to seek competing offers.
Higgins, who negotiated Verizon’s contract with Google over Android mobile phones from 2017 until July of this year, was a witness for the US Justice Department, which claims Google has paid more than $10 billion a year to tech rivals, smartphone makers and wireless providers to be the preselected option, or default, on mobile phones and web browsers.
The antitrust trial before US District Judge Amit Mehta began last week and is expected to last into…
