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Investing.com -- Perplexity, an artificial-intelligence startup, reportedly made an offer on Tuesday to purchase Google’s Chrome browser for $34.5 billion as part of its strategy to challenge Google’s dominance in web search.
The company informed The Wall Street Journal that several investors, including large venture-capital funds, had committed to fully backing the transaction. Bloomberg also reported on Perplexity’s offer.
Chrome’s enterprise value has been estimated to range between $20 billion and $50 billion, according to recent valuations, noted the Journal’s report.
This offer comes as U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta considers whether to force Google to sell the browser as a remedy for weakening Google’s control over web search. Perplexity’s bid may be intended to demonstrate to the judge that there is a potential buyer if a forced sale is ordered.
In a letter to Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Perplexity stated that its offer is "designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator."
Google has not shown interest in selling Chrome.
Commenting on the development, Mizuho (NYSE:MFG) consumer analyst David Bellinger said the news suggests the "browser wars is well underway."
"We are beginning to sense a fundamental shift in how consumer demand is being funneled through the Internet," Bellinger said. "Perplexity, ChatGPT, and other generative AI companies are developing web browsers that could displace the likes of Google Chrome. Today’s news of a potential takeout bid only accelerates this race to own the "high ground" in the early browser wars - which would essentially make AI agents “un-blockable” and allow them to crawl any and every website in search of a user’s query."
(Frank DeMatteo contributed to this article)