REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - A former executive at Samsung Electronics' venture capital arm who proposed that mobile app developer Branch Metrics' software offering be expanded in Samsung smartphones faced pushback due to pressure from Google, he said on Thursday in a landmark antitrust trial against the Alphabet (GOOGL.O) unit. Patrick Chang, who worked at Samsung Next to invest in innovative companies, had urged the parent company (005930.KS) to expand the offerings of Branch, which can search within apps, to its Android smartphones. Chang testified that Samsung also faced pushback from wireless carries, like AT&T, which sell Android phones. In its questioning, the Justice Department showed an August 2020 email by Samsung executive David Eun, who complained that "Google is clearly buying its way to squelch competitors." Chang testified during the fourth week of a more than two-month trial in which the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to show that Google abused its monopoly of search and some search advertising.

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Persons: Gonzalo Fuentes, Patrick Chang, Alexander Austin, Branch, Austin, Chang, David Eun, Diane Bartz, Richard Chang Organizations: Google, Viva Technology, Porte de, REUTERS, Rights, Samsung Electronics, Samsung, Samsung Next, Metrics, Justice Department, U.S . Justice Department, Thomson Locations: Porte, Paris, France