Chrome has not been put up for sale, but that has not stopped AI startup Perplexity from putting in a bid to buy the web browser from Google.
While on the face of things the $34.5 billion bid seems large, it has been widely dismissed as being a fraction of Chrome’s real value. So, what is the deal with Perplexity trying to snap up the most popular web browser in the world?
With roughly 3 billion users, the artificial intelligence startup is offering the equivalent of a little over ten dollars per person – clearly Google makes more than that from each user in a variety of ways. Although Perplexity has venture capital backing, the amount of money it has offered for Chrome exceeds its own valuation as a company. There is no way that Google would accept this low amount even if Chrome was for sale (which it isn’t), and even if Perplexity could lay its hands on funding of that amount (which it almost certainly would not be able to).
It would be natural to doubt that such an unreasonable bid really could have been made by a company but – as Bloomberg reports – it has been confirmed by Perplexity itself. With no chance of being accepted by Google, Perplexity’s lowball bid for Chrome serves one purpose – publicity.
And the stunt bid is certainly gaining the company some attention.
Chrome for sale?
The bid comes at a time when Google is facing legal issues for anticompetitive behavior, and threats that the company may be forced to split up or be sold in some countries. It is on the back of this that Perplexity has entered the arena. It is clearly something that was designed to attract attention, with the firm knowing full well that Google would not give the bid a second’s thought.
There is a great analysis of the bid and the thinking behind it over on Spyglass. Perplexity is viewed as being both deluded and savvy. With so much pressure on Google to split up, could the company consider accepting such a lower offer to keep judges happy? There is a sense of “this seems crazy, but it might just work” to the whole thing.
Spyglass offers up two interesting nuggets of information. Firstly:
The Perplexity offer could be an attempt to signal to the judge that there is an interested buyer, should he force a sale. In a letter to Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google parent Alphabet. Perplexity said its offer to buy Chrome is “designed to satisfy an antitrust remedy in highest public interest by placing Chrome with a capable, independent operator”.
And secondly:
Perplexity told Pichai that, as part of the proposed acquisition, it would maintain and support Chromium, the open-source project that supports Chrome and other browsers. It also said that it would continue placing Google as the default search engine within Chrome, though users could change settings.
Being an AI firm, Perplexity is essentially a rival to Google, and this complicates an already complicated matter even further.
We live in times that make it hard to know quite what will happen next. Just a few years ago, a situation like this even arising would have been extremely unlikely. Now, not only has a crazy bid been made, it is not completely inconceivable that Perplexity could get its wish – and even though it seems simultaneously impossible.
Could Chrome be sold|? Should Chrome be sold? Is a firm like Perplexity the right sort of buyer? Share your thoughts in the comments below as we sit back to wait and see just what Google has to say about it all.
Image credit: Juan Roballo / Dreamstime.com
