Google ruling a ‘net positive’ for Apple, says Evercore ISI

After the U.S. District Court issued its remedial opinion and said Google (GOOGL) will be allowed to maintain its payment to Apple (AAPL) and keep Google Search as the default search engine on Safari, though Google is barred from making any exclusivity arrangements with Apple, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani called the ruling a “net positive” for Apple. The ruling not only will all Apple to maintain receipt of its roughly $15B-$20B payment from Google, but will also allow Apple to renew the deal each year, which gives Apple more leverage in search engine negotiations. This also paves the way for an eventual AI-enabled search engine becoming the default on Safari, whether that be with Gemini or another model, adds the analyst, who maintains an Outperform rating and $250 price target on Apple shares.