Perplexity Bids $34.5-B For Google Chrome, Awaits Judge’s Verdict

Artificial intelligence start-up Perplexity AI has offered Alphabet $34.5 billion to buy Google’s Chrome browser.

Google has not indicated any interest in selling Chrome. (Photo: Perplexity X)

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CEO Aravind Srinivas wrote in a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai that the proposal would satisfy an antitrust remedy if a federal judge orders Google to sell Chrome, Janet H. Cho reported for Barron’s Daily.

Google is awaiting U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s decision on what remedies it must implement to restore competition after he ruled the company held a monopoly in search.

The Justice Department urged the judge this spring to force Google to sell Chrome.

In Tuesday’s letter outlining the $34.5 billion bid, Perplexity called itself a “capable, independent operator focused on continuity, openness, and consumer protection” and pledged to “maintain, support, and promote Chromium,” the open-source project that underpins many browsers.

Although the proposed purchase price is nearly twice Perplexity’s $18 billion valuation, the company told The Wall Street Journal that several major venture-capital investors have agreed to fully back the transaction.

Google has not indicated any interest in selling Chrome.

Last November, Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said being forced to spin off Chrome or Android would “harm consumers, developers, and American technological leadership.”