Overview
- Perplexity’s offer exceeds its roughly $18 billion valuation and the company says it has lined up multiple investment funds to cover the full transaction price.
- Its term sheet pledges to invest $3 billion in Chrome and the Chromium open-source project over two years and to maintain Google as the browser’s default search engine.
- Google has not signaled willingness to sell Chrome, declined to comment on the bid and is widely expected to appeal any court order mandating divestiture.
- The unsolicited proposal coincides with a forthcoming decision by Judge Amit Mehta on DOJ-recommended antitrust remedies following a 2024 ruling that Google illegally monopolized search.
- Other potential buyers including OpenAI, Yahoo and Apollo Global Management have expressed interest, but experts say legal challenges and valuation gaps could delay or derail any sale.