Google’s Android operating system (OS) has generated approximately $22 billion of profit on revenue of $31 billion since its release in 2008, according to what an Oracle Corp lawyer recently said in court.
The data was obtained from confidential internal financial documents; which Google says should never have been made public.
The attorney, Annette Hurst, disclosed the financial information in a lawsuit filed by Oracle accusing Google of not paying for the Java software it used to develop the Android OS.
Android profit and revenue has never been publicly disclosed by the company.
Annette Hurst told a federal magistrate judge: “Look at the extraordinary magnitude of commerciality here,”
Oracle is seeking royalties for Google’s use of its Java language, while Google says that it should be allowed to use Java without paying anything.
On Jan. 20 Google asked a San Francisco federal judge to seal portions of last week’s transcript from the hearing because of the disclosure of “extremely sensitive information” which were meant for “Attorney’s Eyes Only.”
The tech giant said in a filing:
“Google does not publicly allocate revenues or profits to Android separate and apart from Google’s general business.
“That non-public financial data is highly sensitive, and public disclosure could have significant negative effects on Google’s business.”
The case is Oracle America Inc. v. Google Inc., 10-cv-03561, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).
