Google thought about buying Epic during Fortnite trial

Leaked internal documents show that Google considered buying Epic at one point

New unsealed documents from court filings in the Epic and Google antitrust lawsuit show that Google, at one point, considered buying Epic to curb competition.

The filings seen by The Verge show Epic quoting an internal document by Google that calls perceived threats against Android, a "contagion" and "has developed a series of internal projects to address the “contagion” it perceived from efforts by Epic and others to offer consumers and developers competitive alternatives, and has even contemplated buying some or all of Epic to squelch this threat."

These documents do not detail these conversations or provide context or timeframe as to when they took place. Epic's CEO Tim Sweeny tweeted his response, saying that the plans were "unbeknownst to us at the time."

This was unbeknownst to us at the time, and because of the court’s protective order we’re just finding out now about Google’s consideration of buying Epic to shut down our efforts to compete with Google Play.https://t.co/HSS1edUrQm

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) August 6, 2021