ParisLemon

Looks like the thought that Bing could step in as the new Firefox benefactor weren’t far off the mark at all. In fact, Microsoft tried to make such a deal happen, Kara Swisher reports. 

Ultimately it didn’t happen for one reason: money. At $300 million a year (with a minimum three-year contract), Google is nearly tripling their annual payments to Mozilla to keep Microsoft away.

Also interesting: Yahoo was bidding for the contract as well. But they didn’t have enough money to throw at Mozilla to compete with Google or Microsoft. Considering Bing powers Yahoo search, you’d think the two could have worked together on a bid to displace Google. Though who knows how high Google would have been willing to go. 

On the other hand, considering how much Microsoft spends to try and make Bing competitive each year, you’d think they’d be willing to go all-in on such a deal. 

Regardless, Mozilla played this well. Historically, over 80 percent of their revenues have come from their Google deal, and that will be much higher now as revenues will likely triple as well.