Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. KR:005930 ended an internal review that was looking into whether to swap out Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGGOOGL Google with Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT Bing as the default search engine for the Internet app on its mobile devices, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The New York Times had wrote in April that Samsung was exploring a potential switch, a report that weighed on Alphabet shares at the time. Alphabet’s stock was up 0.9% in Friday’s premarket action. The Wall Street Journal story, which cited multiple unnamed sources, said that most owners of Samsung devices don’t even end up using the Internet app as their web browser, but Samsung’s management has nonetheless tabled the discussion of whether to ditch Google on that app, in part due to concerns about how such a move would impact other business relationships with Alphabet. Samsung didn’t respond to a MarketWatch request for comment on the report.
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