The Wall Street Journal today reported that Perplexity, valued at around $18 billion, has made an unsolicited $34.5 billion offer to buy Google’s Chrome browser in an effort to capitalize on uncertainty ahead of an antitrust remedy ruling against Google’s search monopoly.
That’s a bold offer. Close to 2x Perplexity’s valuation.
Recent estimates peg Chrome’s enterprise value between $20–$50 billion.
Chrome has about 3.5 billion users and over 60% global browser market share.
Perplexity signaled that it has investor backing for the full amount and committed to keeping Google as Chrome’s default search engine (although changeable by users).
What does this signal?
Given that Perplexity recently gave the world a glimpse of v.1 of a truly agentic browser with Comet, it seems that they are making a play to own what could become the single most important user interaction layer with AI. And if my own experience with Comet is any indication, it’s entirely conceivable that someday (soon) 100% of the digital portion of the buyer journey will starts and end on the browser with “no click” instant answers powering research, consideration, and even purchase once payments are fully sorted out.
The browser as your work-life OS
Imagine a scenario where users can configure their browser as their work-life OS, switching seamlessly from planning travel itineraries and finding the best cooking recipes (personalized for dietary needs) to accessing business-critical SaaS platforms.
Is this the end of the “single source of truth” SaaS platforms and the countless APIs and out-of-the box connectors needed to integrate various business-critical apps.
If all your SaaS apps integrated to the browser, wouldn’t it be your single pane of glass?