Why would Microsoft want to sell, and why would Apple want to buy?<p>As I understood it, the point of Bing was for Microsoft to have a good-enough search engine so that Windows users would accept the default. They could leverage that the way Google does, to lock users into a whole ecosystem of tools.<p>If that was right, Apple would have no interest in buying it. They can surely do their own search engine.<p>And Microsoft wouldn't want to sell it. They'd need something to anchor their web ecosystem. Bing is a brand more than a technology.<p>I don't doubt that TFA is right that they did try to sell it. But I have no idea why.