This bid comes after the Department of Justice proposed in March that Google be forced to sell Chrome after a judge ruled the tech giant acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search. Google has not agreed to sell Chrome and has vowed to fight the ruling.
The Perplexity spokesperson believes the court will soon set terms for remedies, perhaps later this month. (Google is also fighting another federal case where the judge ruled it illegally monopolized adtech, and the DOJ is proposing Google be forced to divest two of its adtech products or otherwise break up its ad business.)
When the DOJ first proposed that Google divest Chrome, both OpenAI and Perplexity expressed interest in buying it. Given that Chrome is the dominant browser, with 68% marketshare according to Statcounter, if the court rules Chrome must be sold, no doubt others worldwide would want to bid as well.
Imo this would kill chrome's dominance on the marketplace