Apple Inc. shares gained in late trading after a US judge stopped short of barring its lucrative search arrangement with Google, a deal that has generated roughly $20 billion in revenue a year for the iPhone maker.
Though Judge Amit Mehta ruled in an antitrust case that Google can’t enter exclusive contracts for internet search, deals that make the search provider a default option in internet browsers are still allowed.
“Google is permitted to pay browser developers, like Apple,” he said in the decision. However, the partner company must promote other search engines, offer a different option in various operating ...
