Microsoft in negotiation with Verizon

Microsoft Corp. is in discussion to get its search function placed on Verizon Wireless phones, displacing Google Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported.

The story quoted unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The paper wrote in August that Google was close to finalizing a deal with Verizon Wireless to make its search function the default choice on the phones.

Microsoft is offering Verizon Wireless a larger share of advertising revenue from the searches and a promise of higher payments, the Journal said Friday, adding that the carrier is tipping toward that offer.

No comment from Verizon

"We don't have any interest in negotiating our business relationships through the press." Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson had no comment on the report, saying Verizon Wireless doesn't have an outside partnership for mobile Web searches.

Google is the default search provider on Sprint Nextel Corp. phones. AT&T Inc. uses Yahoo Inc.

The report comes as Google and Microsoft are building up their competition on the mobile-phone front. In October, T-Mobile USA released the first phone that runs Google's Android software, a competitor to Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group.