Microsoft spent four years building a browser engine, then adopted Google's
Edge rebuilt on Chromium; Microsoft abandoned its own EdgeHTML engine
The market's verdict: +0.5% on MSFT in the week after.
What actually happened
On December 6, 2018, Microsoft announced it would rebuild Edge on Chromium, Google's open-source browser engine, retiring the homegrown EdgeHTML it had shipped with Windows 10 in 2015. The new Edge arrived on January 15, 2020, and the legacy version's support ended in March 2021. For users it mostly meant a better Edge with Chrome extensions. For the company that once fought a browser war to keep the web on its own engine, it was a quiet surrender filed as a press release: three and a half years of engine development traded for a seat at Google's table. The browser wars ended; the winning side wrote the engine.
This one is officially acknowledged.
Links
↳ caused by Edge on Chromium announcement (December 2018)
Timeline
- Dec 6, 2018 Stood by it Microsoft stood by it.