Perplexity’s $34.5 billion bid to acquire Chrome from Google made headlines worldwide. Discover, Instagram, X — you just couldn’t miss the headline, it was everywhere. However, there’s a different company that’s already outbidding perplexity, and it has mostly gone under the radar.
Generative AI search platform Search.com has just submitted a $35 billion counter-proposal.
The AI search engine company, unlike Perplexity, confirmed that the proposal is backed by J.P. Morgan. A division of Public Good, Search.com, again, unlike Perplexity, aims to make changes to Chrome if it is able to acquire the browser. “Search.com promises something revolutionary: actual cash back for users, revenue sharing for publishers, and an end to the ad-cluttered web experience that’s suffocated the internet for decades,” it wrote in a press release.
Cash backs? For using the browser? Maybe that’s a model similar to Brave browser’s rewards program, though we’re not entirely sure. Revenue-sharing for publishers sounds like a win, especially with tools like AI Mode and AI Overview scraping content and driving down actual clicks to publisher websites. Lastly, fewer ads would be a welcome relief, though that leaves questions about how the company intends to generate sufficient revenue to be able to offer revenue-sharing and cash backs.
If forced, expect Google to appeal the divesture
For what it’s worth, Google hasn’t yet commented on Perplexity’s offer, and the same goes for Search.com’s bid, which came in earlier today. “With the Department of Justice’s antitrust policy poised to force Google’s hand, this billion-dollar chess match could reshape the entire internet by Christmas,” wrote the company in its release. We highly doubt that Google would actually divest (if forced) by Christmas, especially since the tech giant could appeal the remedy to the US Court of Appeals. If that falls through, it can then knock on the US Supreme Court’s door.
Unless Google actually wants to get Chrome off its hands, the case will likely drag on for months, and potentially even years, to come.