The story behind Google's secret offer to settle EU's Android probe

Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., has been one of the EU's biggest antitrust targets, with three probes and countless headlines

European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager coolly hit Google with a 4.3 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine last week, the biggest penalty in the history of antitrust enforcement.

It didn’t have to be that way.

A year earlier, when the company -- already reeling from a 2.4 billion-euro fine in another EU case -- made quiet attempts to settle the probe into deals it has with Android phone makers, the response was equally chilly.

The Silicon Valley search giant had waited at least a year too long to broach the subject of a settlement, the 50-year-old Vestager said in an interview.