Search engine giant has always claimed its operating system is not-for-profit but Oracle’s lawyers claim Google has made more than £15 billion from its OS
Google has generated £21.7 billion in revenue from its Android operating system, a lawyer for Oracle has claimed in a US court.
Of that revenue, around £15.4 billion was profit, the Oracle Group lawyer claimed during the software firm’s lawsuit against the search engine giant.
Android, which is open source for manufacturers, was first unveiled in 2007 and is the world’s largest operating system with more than 82 per cent of global smartphone market share. (IDC)
Oracle did not disclose the methodology it used to come up with the figure, though Google claimed the information should never have been revealed. Reports from the US claim the software giant had challenged judges to seal and redact the claims, stating they were “attorney’s eyes only”.
Google does not publicly allocate revenues or profits to Android separate and apart from Google’s general business,” lawyers for Google noted in the filing.
“That non-public financial data is highly sensitive, and public disclosure could have significant negative effects on Google’s business.”
Oracle took Google to court over how much copyright protection should extend to the Java programming language, which Google used in its development of Android.
Oracle is seeking royalties for this use, with Google claiming it should not have to pay.
