Overview

• Search.com has lodged a $35 billion offer backed by JPMorgan Chase and private equity partners
• Perplexity AI previously proposed a $34.5 billion acquisition to counter Big Tech’s control and safeguard open-source browser infrastructure
• Search.com frames its pitch as an ethical AI plan with ad-free browsing, cashback incentives and a 60 percent revenue share for publishers while Perplexity stresses open-source principles
• Chrome commands about 65 percent of global browser usage and channels nearly 90 percent of search traffic, positioning it at the center of the antitrust case
• The final outcome depends on the DOJ’s remedies decision, ongoing court rulings on divestiture feasibility and Google’s resistance and appeals