Search.com has entered the bidding for Google Chrome with a $35 billion acquisition offer it says is backed by JP Morgan.
The bid, announced Thursday, tops Perplexity AI’s $34.5 billion offer for Chrome earlier in the week and could open the floodgates for more corporate suitors as the popular web browser awaits its fate in federal court this month. There, a judge is to determine whether Alphabet Inc.’s Google is forced to divest the browser after the Justice Department won an antitrust case against the company.
“As AI advances at an unprecedented pace, it’s essential to make its benefits accessible to all — while steadfastly upholding ethical principles,” Melissa Anderson, president of Public Good, said in a statement. “At Public Good, and now with our newly launched gen AI platform, Search.com, we have consistently championed innovation and fairness, ensuring consumers are always at the heart of progress.”
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has adamantly resisted any sale of Chrome and the company plans to appeal last year’s U.S. court ruling that found Alphabet held an unlawful monopoly in online search by signing multibillion-dollar deals to make its search engine the default on web browsers and smartphones from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics. The Justice Department has sought divestiture of Chrome as part of the case’s remedies. Google Chrome is used by about 3.5 billion users.
Chrome’s murky future, in turn, has drawn plenty of interest from would-be acquirers such as OpenAI and DuckDuckGo as web browsers become more deeply ingrained in artificial intelligence (AI). Search.com’s bid could portend even more bids for Chrome, given its unclear status.
The splashiest so far has come from Perplexity, though few doubt it will happen. Perplexity’s surprise all-cash bid, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, significantly exceeds its own valuation of $18 billion. But Perplexity insists it has lined up several investors, including large venture-capital funds, who “agreed to back the transaction in full,” the Journal report, citing sources close to Perplexity.
Perplexity, meanwhile, has been the subject of takeover rumors of its own in recent months. Apple Inc. has reportedly circled the company, and Meta Platforms Inc. made overtures before poaching talent and investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI.
