Artificial intelligence firm Perplexity on Tuesday made an unsolicited $34.5 billion offer to buy Google’s Chrome web browser – as the Big Tech giant faces the prospect of being broken up over its illegal monopoly over online search.
The massive offer dwarfs the startup’s own current valuation, estimated to be $18 billion.
Perplexity, run by Aravind Srinivas, said it is partnering with multiple investors, including unnamed venture capital firms, to bankroll the proposed deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The firm would invest $3 billion into Chrome over two years and maintain open-source access for its underlying code, Chromium, according to details of the proposal obtained by the Journal. It would also continue placing Google as the default search engine in Chrome.
US District Judge Amit Mehta, who last year ruled that Google is a “monopolist,” is expected to decide before the end of the month on the best remedy to unwind its illegal dominance and open up competition for potential rivals.
A forced divestiture of Chrome is one of several options on the table – though Google would assuredly appeal, pushing the timeline out years into the future.
Perplexity — which has its own AI-powered web browser, Comet — told Google that its offer was “designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator,” according to the Journal.
Google did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
The company’s stock was up more than 1% in afternoon trading on Tuesday.
Experts have estimated that Chrome, which has more than 3 billion monthly active users, would be worth anywhere from $20 billion to $50 billion if it were to be sold.
The Justice Department has asked Mehta to force Google to share its search data with rivals and to make sure that he considers the impact of Google’s massive investments in AI-powered search features when crafting his remedies.
The feds have also proposed requiring a selloff of Google’s Android software if initial remedies prove ineffective.
Mehta is also expected to bar Google from paying billions to companies like Apple to ensure its search engine is set as the default option on most smartphones.
“Judge Mehta is a pretty orthodox guy. It’s very possible that he would hold off on requiring a sale until the appeals process is worked out and that could be a very lengthy period of time,” said Herbert Hovenkamp, professor at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
“It would go to the DC Circuit, which is skeptical of forced divestitures, and it’s possible it would even go to the Supreme Court after that. So that process could run out for a couple of years.”
Google, led by CEO Sundar Pichai, has not publicly signaled that Chrome is for sale. Company officials have claimed that any forced selloff of Chrome or products would break them and chill Google’s willingness to invest in new technologies.
Still, Perplexity joins a growing field of potential bidders. In April, an OpenAI executive testified that the ChatGPT maker would be interested in buying Chrome if antitrust enforcers succeeded in forcing a sale of the browser.
Yahoo, which is owned by Apollo Global Management, has also expressed interest in an acquisition.
The Post and the Wall Street Journal, both subsidiaries of News Corp., are suing Perplexity for ripping off their copyrighted work.
Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers. It made a similar one for TikTok US in January, offering to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve US concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
With Post wires
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