Perplexity’s offer to purchase Google’s Chrome browser could take the company from millions to billions, analysts at UBS believe.
The AI search engine has made a $34.5 billion offer to purchase Chrome.
Financing terms have not been disclosed, but Perplexity was last valued at about $18 billion.
The analysts see the strategic intent of the offer as clear following the release of Perplexity’s own browser Comet. Comet, which has about 28 million monthly users per SensorTower data, compared to Chrome, which tops 2 billion users per month.
“The potential acquisition of the asset should accelerate Perplexity's user growth and place it in a better position to more rapidly expand the distribution of its consumer-facing GenAI search products,” they wrote.
“As we look further into the horizon, as Perplexity expands its search advertising effort, this large of a user base could take it from experimental to a must-buy for advertisers.”
Google has indicated that it is unwilling to sell Chrome, however, an antitrust ruling may force the sale. Should this occur, Jefferies sees Chrome adding “instant scale” for whoever the potential acquirer might be.
“In the event of a sale process, it is likely other bidders would emerge as well - we note that OpenAI has publicly spoken of its interest,” they noted.
Shares of Google’s parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) traded hands at $204 on Thursday afternoon, up 7.3% in the year to date.