Sure it does. Apple isn't short of funding. If they think a search engine would be profitable they have the capital. Whats the $15 billion does is this: 1. Con

Sure it does. Apple isn't short of funding. If they think a search engine would be profitable they have the capital. Whats the $15 billion does is this: 1. Controls the default. Lots of people never change it, so Google gets more customers, worth more than $15 billion 2. Starves potential competitors of revenue such as Bing 3. Reduces Apple's incentive to go full tilt into search engine development. They now have to give up $15 billion Apple's new ads business changes the calculus though and they may have more incentive to deploy a search engine in the near future