Generative AI company Perplexity made a jaw-dropping offer to Alphabet (GOOG 0.52%) (GOOGL 0.46%) on Tuesday: It is willing to buy its Google Chrome browser for $34.5 billion. Even more amazing is that Perplexity is only valued at around $18 billion, as of its last fundraising round. Perplexity claims to have investors that would be able to fund the deal should it get agreed to, but I don't think it will.
Even though $34.5 billion is a large chunk of change for what appears to be just a web browser, it means far more to Google's ecosystem. I don't think $34.5 billion will be enough, and there are few sums large enough to get CEO Sundar Pichai to even consider an offer.
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Alphabet has other options than selling Google Chrome today
The reason why Perplexity offered to buy Google Chrome is simple: A federal court ruled that Google is operating an illegal monopoly in the advertising space, and selling off Google Chrome was one of the remedies that a federal district court is considering.
If the final remedy is to sell off Google Chrome, there are still a couple of courts that Alphabet can appeal to, including a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court. We're still a long way from finding out the conclusion of the Alphabet monopoly saga, and for Alphabet to sell Google Chrome this early would be giving up.
Furthermore, CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabet haven't shown any interest in selling Google Chrome, and its lawyers argued that forcing a Chrome sale would have potential national security implications.
Whether that is true or not is beside the point; Google Chrome is an important part of how Alphabet gathers data for ads, and it does not want another company to have control over it. As a result, there's likely no amount of money that Alphabet will agree to sell Google Chrome for unless it has exhausted all other options.
But what will happen next?
A bidding war may erupt over Google Chrome
If Perplexity made an offer, you can bet that other generative AI start-ups such as OpenAI will be quick to follow. An OpenAI executive has already testified to the court that it would be open to buying Chrome, and there are likely other companies in a similar position. Although it may be a meaningless bidding war for reasons laid out above, I wouldn't be surprised to see more offers flood in.
I'd also be shocked if Alphabet actually considered any of them, but anything is possible.
If Alphabet were to agree to a buyout offer, that would likely indicate that Alphabet already has another browser developed and ready to go to replace Chrome. The information it gains by being a default search engine is massive, and that's an advantage that Google won't easily give up, whether it's for $34.5 billion or $100 billion.
We're just in the beginning stages of finding out what will happen with Google Chrome. While this may kick off a round of bids, I'd be surprised if anything is done over the next few years, as there is still a long process of appeals that will continue with Alphabet seeking to maintain control over Google Chrome.
