Out of the blue, Perplexity posted a huge bid for Google’s Chrome browser with an anti-trust judgement as the backdrop.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Perplexity AI posted a $34.5 billion bid to buy out Google’s Chrome browser. Additionally, the offer was made fully in cash, with no equity to be exchanged.
The offer comes as a surprise because as far as most anyone knew, Google wasn’t offering Chrome for sale to begin with and $34.5 billion is more than Perplexity AI’s current valuation. The search giant offered no comment on the prospective deal to a number of publications. However, there’s some context that might explain why Perplexity’s CEO Aravind Srinivas flashed the checkbook in such grand fashion.
Google is entrenched in U.S. anti-trust lawsuits, having lost one and been hit with a second. The most pressing judgement was by Judge Amit Mehta, who ruled that Google has a monopoly on internet search, and an outcome is expected any day now. In that case, the U.S. Justice Department has told Judge Mehta that said monopoly couldn’t be remedied without structural changes to the company, and the selling of Chrome was previously floated as a solution.
