Perplexity makes a bid for Google Chrome
12 days ago
- #Google Chrome
- #Acquisition
- #Perplexity
- Perplexity, an AI startup, is making a $34.5 billion all-cash offer to buy Google Chrome, despite Chrome not being for sale.
- Perplexity claims it could run Chromium at the same scale as Google without reducing quality or charging, pledging to keep Chromium open source and invest $3 billion over two years.
- Google Chrome's sale may become a possibility as Google's antitrust trial concludes, with potential remedies including a forced sale.
- Perplexity's bid is nearly twice its own valuation, with financing speculated to come from 'multiple funds'.
- OpenAI and Yahoo have previously expressed interest in Chrome, and Perplexity recently launched its own 'Comet' web browser.
- This isn't Perplexity's first high-profile acquisition attempt, having previously tried to buy TikTok.