Google's secret plan to dump search in Australia, and hide it from Samsung

Emails posted as part of the US Government's landmark antitrust trial expose how far the search giant was willing to go to avoid paying for content

EXCLUSIVE

Redacted emails obtained by Future Media have revealed Google was secretly planning to axe search for 26 million Australians months before making the threat public.

And senior executives plotted to keep the plan secret from its partner Samsung because it had just signed a multi-billion-dollar default search deal.

The default deals with Samsung, as well as Apple and others, are central to the landmark antitrust trial that Google is currently fighting with the US Government.

The emails between senior Google executives were initially posted on the US Department of Justice website.

Early in the case, Google fought for the documents to be kept out of the public eye but was over-ruled by judge Amit Mehta after protests about secrecy from the media.

This specific e-mail trail disappeared from the public website last weekend, and was then reposted a week ago, with most pages redacted.

Future Media has the unredacted documents and shares them today.