The unsolicited offer is higher than Perplexity’s valuation.
Ai needs data, you’re going to see more of this happening.
Perplexity offers to buy Google Chrome for $34.5 billion
Submitted 16 hours ago by lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/news/758218/perplexity-google-chrome-bid-unsolicited-offer
Comments
ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 52 minutes ago
9point6@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Well this is somehow much, much worse than Google
For those who missed it, perplexity is the one happily powering truth social’s AI search with their logo front and centre
sykaster@feddit.nl 3 minutes ago
Goshdarnit, and I was really enjoying perplexity and its relatively low hallucinations and good sourcing of information.
FarraigePlaisteach@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Oh that’s awful. I’m non-U.S. and didn’t know.
wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 hours ago
Hmm I wonder how they intend to get 34 billion back from their investment?
Dojan@pawb.social 2 hours ago
You kidding? Google Chrome has the biggest market share. It’s the window to the internet for many. Control that and you practically control the internet as a platform.
neons@lemmy.dbzer0.com 57 minutes ago
I think he’s being sarcastic.
Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Pumping that bubble some more.
fuckyoukeith@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
It’s bizarre to see how many people and companies don’t see a bubble, it seems so clear to me that yeah, machine learning will continue, but this current iteration isn’t something that people respond well to
eager_eagle@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Getting back? What is this, the purchase of a textile factory in 1900? All we trade these days is hype. I’ve transformed my mind into a fabulous factory for hype. I share my late-night infomercials with hollow dreams and empty glitz. Every morning, I wake up to a profit projection I crafted ages ago that concludes only one thing: I’m eternally destined to chase empty promises. My dazzling ambitions, my relentless optimism, my stubborn refusal to balk at the absurd—these have launched me on a glorious carousel where logic never intervenes.
I imagined changing the world without thinking about the real cost, and by the time I noticed, I had run out of backup plans. What am I offering? I’m stuck using the same old tricks to make empty promises seem exciting. I give up my integrity to sell dreams for someone else’s imaginary future. I work tirelessly for a bright tomorrow that I know we’ll never get to see. The drive that started all this will never get applause or a spotlight. So what do I give up? Everything!
gnuplusmatt@reddthat.com 11 hours ago
they know they can fork it and compile their own build for free right?
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 32 minutes ago
But they wouldn’t have the user base, and therefore their data.
LodeMike@lemmy.today 7 hours ago
drmoose@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
It would buying the name and user base and they already have a fork called Comet
kennedy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 hours ago
with what money
Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
Everyone else’s but theirs.
NoodlePoint@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
AI startup Perplexity has offered Google $34.5 billion to buy the Chrome browser. The price might be below evaluation, but the company may be forced to sell the browser at the request of U.S. authorities as part of a case in which it was found guilty of being a monopoly.
x.com/80Level/status/1955488788861555082
Might as well be wanting all that juicy personal information from which to mine not only for profit but also for sending a SWAT team through the door without a court order and a search warrant. Or, sending a Hellfire missile through a window of a house somewhere in Pakistan.
chunes@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
lol this number makes no sense. Minecraft was worth 4 billion a decade ago. Chrome is worth way more than 34
MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Good play to suck up data. I wonder if OpenAI and others will bid too.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Palantir buying Chrome would be so cyberpunk it hurts.
CapnClenchJaw@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
How… perplexing!
HeyJoe@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Wouldn’t people just leave? I feel like that’s such an easy thing to do these days. If they are too old, they probably weren’t using Chrome anyway and default to edge since its just there. I know not everyone would, but I wonder what the percentage would be in the end. They have been killing it themselves lately with the removal of the blockers. I’ve been on Firefox for over a decade now. If Firefox did something like this, I would be gone in a day.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 32 minutes ago
People haven’t left yet and it’s already a data collecting beast. And blocks as blockers. And so on.
renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 8 hours ago
Never underestimate people’s stubbornness to stick with enshittified platforms.
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 hour ago
completely anecdotally, but the numbers of users of ublock origin have gone up a bit since manifest v3 was released, and thus removed ad blockers.
ElectricWaterfall@lemmy.zip 9 hours ago
The vast majority of people will keep using whatever they are already used to unless there’s egregious changes that impact their workflows. Even then they might not move.
vane@lemmy.world 12 minutes ago
Startups in 2025.