Perplexity offers $34.5 billion to buy Chrome - DTNSB 5080

Reddit announces its will block the Internet Archive to prevent AI scraping of its data, and Samsung's new Micro RGB TV is an affordable $32,000!

Starring Jason Howell, and Tom Merritt.

JASON: This is the Daily Tech News for Tuesday, August 12, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories, and help each other understand.

TOM: Today, Perplexity is offering Google $34.5 billion to buy Chrome, and Reddit is blocking the Internet Archive because of… AI?

I’m Jason Howell,

I’m Tom Merritt.

JASON: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.

BIG STORY

Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5 Billion Offer for Chrome
JASON: Perplexity offered $34.5 billion to Google to acquire its Chrome web browser. Perplexity's own value is an estimated at $18 billion, far below the offer given for Chrome, but Perplexity says many of its investors and VC funds are committed to backing the company in such an acquisition.

Perplexity also proposed that it would continue to support and maintain Chromium and would continue to offer Google as the default search engine within the Chrome browser.

Just last year, Google was ruled an illegal monopoly in the US online search market and last December the Justice Department asked the federal court to consider forcing Google to sell off its Chrome browser to repair the search monopoly.

Google has not shared its intention to sell off its browser assets.

Tom’s notes on the two antitrust cases, and what it has to do with the Chrome browser.

There are two antitrust cases against Google in the US right now.

Later this month we're expecting to hear Judge Mehta rule on a remedy to one of them. That case is about Google's search advertising. You can think about this one as being regarding ads on search, mostly Google. In this case, a different judge determined Google abused its dominant position to sell text ads on its search engine, by pursuing exclusive deals with Mozilla, Samsung and Apple. So this is the Google search ads case. The harm was that text ad rates became no longer price sensitive.

The other case is about ad tools. You can keep it straight in your head by thinking about it as not on Google. The judge determined Google abused its dominant position by tying ad serving and ad exchanges together in Google Ad Manager. So this is the Google Ad Manager case. It applies to how ads are sold all over the internet. The harm was locking out competitors and reducing product features. A remedy hearing for this one will happen on Sept. 22.

In the case where Google has been found by Judge Mehta to have abused its dominant position in search text advertising, the US DoJ proposed forcing Google to divest Chrome, as one of several possible remedies.

During the remedy hearing in April, OpenAI's ChatGPT chief Nick Turley was asked by the US Department of Justice attorney if the judge ordered Google to sell Chrome, would OpenAI be interested. Turley said, “Yes, we would, as would many other parties.”

The judge indicated he may favor softer remedies like limited data sharing and ending payments to Google only if other measures do not increase competition. Judge Mehta plans to issue his decision by August. Whatever he decides, Google says it will appeal the original decision that it violated antitrust rules.

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BRIEFS

Musk says xAI to take legal action against Apple over App Store rankings
TOM: Elon Musk said that xAI will sue Apple, claiming that the App Store's rankings violate antitrust rules by favoring and prominently displaying OpenAI. He claims Apple makes it impossible for any AI app besides ChatGPT to hit Number 1. Currently, ChatGPT sits at Number 1 while Grok sits at Number 5 in the US Top Free Apps. OpenAI's Sam Altman pushed back on X, referring to allegations that Musk manipulates X to assist his own companies. Community Notes on X also cited DeepSeek hitting number 1 in January, and Perplexity hitting Number 1 in India in July following Apple's OpenAI deal.

Reddit will block the Internet Archive
JASON: Reddit announced it will block the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine from indexing most of its site. Reddit has blocked scraping of its content on the site itself and cut deals with Google and OpenAI to gain access to that data, but claims that its content on the Internet Archive is a workaround for AI companies looking to use its content in the development of their own models without paying for it. Post pages, comments, and profiles will be blocked, leaving only the Reddit.com homepage for daily snapshots.

Epic says Fortnite is coming back to iOS in Australia
TOM: Epic announced it is bringing Fortnite for iOS back to Australia after a federal judge found Apple and Google used their app stores to limit competition. Judge Beach rejected Epic's consumer law and "unconscionable conduct" claims, all of which is detailed in a more than 2,000-page-long judgement which will not be released publicly.

Microsoft releases lightweight Office taskbar apps for Windows 11
JASON: Microsoft is rolling out three lightweight Microsoft 365 companion apps for a wide release on Windows 11 after being first announced at Ignite last November. The new mini-apps will rest on the taskbar and auto-launch at startup. The People app shows a browsable org chart for looking up coworkers, starting Teams chats and calls, and sending quick emails. The File Search app gives quick access to Microsoft 365 files across OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook with search and filters. The Calendar app shows upcoming events, includes search, and can join meetings from the taskbar.

China tells Alibaba, ByteDance to justify purchases of Nvidia AI chips
TOM: The US issued licenses last Friday to let Nvidia and AMD sell inference chips like the H20 and MI308 to Chinese companies, but China's government has other ideas. The Financial Times reports that China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has requested tech companies explain why they need to order Nvidia H20 chips instead of using Chinese alternatives. Bloomberg previously reported that China discourages the use of Nvidia chips for government-related work. This all goes on while China and the US continue to negotiate a new trade deal.

GitHub CEO to step down
JASON: GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke announced on the company blog that he will step down at the end of the year to "become a founder again." Microsoft does not plan to directly replace his CEO role, opting instead to have GitHub leaders report to key Microsoft executives in the CoreAI division, according to Axios. It's currently unclear how his departure might influence the way GitHub operates and develops its products.

Sling TV Launches $4.99 Day Passes, Perfect for Live Streaming Sports and Live Events
TOM: Sling TV will now sell access in 24-hour, weekend, or weeklong terms if you just need to watch the game or games. The passes give you access to everything in the Sling Orange plan, which is a somewhat overcomplicated subset of everything Sling offers in the blue plan but with ESPN instead of Fox Sports, among other ABC vs. Fox differences. Sling also doesn't carry CBS. The day pass costs $5, the weekend pass costs $10, and a week-long pass is $15. A month of orange is $46. You can also add the Sports, News, or Entertainment extra packs for $1, $2, or $3.

Samsung has launched its first Micro RGB TV with improved color accuracy
JASON: Samsung launched its first 115" Micro RGB TV in South Korea for the eye watering sum of $32,000. The backlight uses ultra-fine, individually colored red, green, and blue LEDS under 100 microns. The set brings improvements to color accuracy contrast, and vibrancy. Samsung's 110-inch MicroLED set runs $150,000 in the US, so the company is positioning Micro RGB as the more affordable option. A US and global rollout is set to follow with more sizes to come upon a wider release.

Apple Cinemas Addresses Trademark Dispute with Apple Inc.
TOM: Apple Cinemas, an independent theater chain, was hit by a trademark lawsuit from Apple Inc arguing that there is potential for confusion among consumers. The company says its name originated from its first planned site at Apple Valley Mall in New England and has been used for over a decade through its US expansion. Apple Cinemas is rejecting Apple's claims of consumer confusion and says its branding is clearly differentiated to show no affiliation with Apple Inc. Apple Cinemas says it will continue to defend its identity in court.

HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND

JASON: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today Joe has a question about the legality of Nvidia and AMD paying 15% of revenue from sales of the H20 and MI308 chips.

TOM: Joe wrote on our Patreon: Even if this is not unconstitutional, doesn't it sound like a violation of 18USC201 and or FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). It certainly seems like extortion of a bribe by a US official. Or is it "OK" because the funds are sent to the treasury office, not any particular individual.

JASON: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

JASON: Thanks to Joe for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron, atPatreon.com/dtns