Latest news with #AkashSriram
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AI startup Perplexity makes bold $34.5 billion bid for Google's Chrome browser
By Akash Sriram (Reuters) -Perplexity AI said it has made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet's Chrome browser, a low but bold bid that would need financing well above the startup's own valuation. Run by Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers - it made a similar one for TikTok US in January, offering to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve U.S. concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership. Buying Chrome would allow the startup to tap the browser's more than three billion users for an edge in the AI search race as regulatory pressure threatens Google's grip on the industry. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The company has not offered Chrome for sale and plans to appeal a U.S. court ruling last year that found it held an unlawful monopoly in online search. The Justice Department has sought a Chrome divestiture as part of the case's remedies. Perplexity did not disclose on Tuesday how it plans to fund the offer. The three-year-old company has raised around $1 billion in funding so far from investors including Nvidia and Japan's SoftBank. It was last valued at $14 billion. Multiple funds have offered to finance the deal in full, a person familiar with the matter said, without naming the funds. As a new generation of users turns to chatbots such as ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers, web browsers are regaining prominence as vital gateways to search traffic and prized user data, making them central to Big Tech's AI ambitions. Perplexity already has an AI browser, Comet, that can perform certain tasks on a user's behalf and acquiring Chrome would give it the heft to better compete against bigger rivals such as OpenAI. The ChatGPT parent has also expressed interest in buying Chrome and is working on its own AI browser. Perplexity's bid pledges to keep the underlying browser code called Chromium open source, invest $3 billion over two years and make no changes to Chrome's default search engine, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. The company said the offer, with no equity component, would preserve user choice and ease future competition concerns. Analysts have said Google would be unlikely to sell Chrome and would likely engage in a long legal fight to prevent that outcome, given it is crucial to the company's AI push as it rolls out features including AI-generated search summaries, known as Overviews, to help defend its search market share. A federal judge is expected to issue a ruling on remedies in the Google search antitrust case sometime this month. Perplexity's bid is also below the at least $50 billion value that rival search engine DuckDuckGo's CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, suggested Chrome may command if Google was forced to sell it. Besides OpenAI and Perplexity, Yahoo and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest in Chrome.
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
AI startup Perplexity makes bold $34.5 billion bid for Google's Chrome browser
By Akash Sriram (Reuters) -Perplexity AI said it has made a $34.5 billion unsolicited all-cash offer for Alphabet's Chrome browser, a low but bold bid that would need financing well above the startup's own valuation. Run by Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity is no stranger to headline-grabbing offers - it made a similar one for TikTok US in January, offering to merge with the popular short-video app to resolve U.S. concerns about TikTok's Chinese ownership. Buying Chrome would allow the startup to tap the browser's more than three billion users for an edge in the AI search race as regulatory pressure threatens Google's grip on the industry. Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The company has not offered Chrome for sale and plans to appeal a U.S. court ruling last year that found it held an unlawful monopoly in online search. The Justice Department has sought a Chrome divestiture as part of the case's remedies. Perplexity did not disclose on Tuesday how it plans to fund the offer. The three-year-old company has raised around $1 billion in funding so far from investors including Nvidia and Japan's SoftBank. It was last valued at $14 billion. Multiple funds have offered to finance the deal in full, a person familiar with the matter said, without naming the funds. As a new generation of users turns to chatbots such as ChatGPT and Perplexity for answers, web browsers are regaining prominence as vital gateways to search traffic and prized user data, making them central to Big Tech's AI ambitions. Perplexity already has an AI browser, Comet, that can perform certain tasks on a user's behalf and acquiring Chrome would give it the heft to better compete against bigger rivals such as OpenAI. The ChatGPT parent has also expressed interest in buying Chrome and is working on its own AI browser. Perplexity's bid pledges to keep the underlying browser code called Chromium open source, invest $3 billion over two years and make no changes to Chrome's default search engine, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. The company said the offer, with no equity component, would preserve user choice and ease future competition concerns. Analysts have said Google would be unlikely to sell Chrome and would likely engage in a long legal fight to prevent that outcome, given it is crucial to the company's AI push as it rolls out features including AI-generated search summaries, known as Overviews, to help defend its search market share. A federal judge is expected to issue a ruling on remedies in the Google search antitrust case sometime this month. Perplexity's bid is also below the at least $50 billion value that rival search engine DuckDuckGo's CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, suggested Chrome may command if Google was forced to sell it. Besides OpenAI and Perplexity, Yahoo and private-equity firm Apollo Global Management have also expressed interest in Chrome.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Duolingo raises 2025 revenue forecast as AI tools boost user engagement
By Akash Sriram (Reuters) -Language-learning app Duolingo raised its annual revenue forecast and beat second-quarter revenue estimates on Wednesday, anticipating broader adoption of its AI-enhanced subscription tier among its global user base. The company's shares rose about 20% in trading after the bell. Duolingo operates on a freemium model, offering basic language-learning features for free while providing premium capabilities through monthly or annual paid subscriptions. The company now expects revenue for 2025 to be in the range of $1.01 billion to $1.02 billion, compared to analysts' estimates of $996.6 million. It had earlier projected revenue between $987 million and $996 million for the year. Revenue in the April-June period was $252.3 million, compared with analysts' estimates of $240.7 million. Duolingo's two subscription tiers — Super, designed for frequent learners, and Max, tailored for advanced users — include AI-driven features such as video-call conversation practice with chatbots, personalized error analysis and enhanced feedback tools. Since launching an AI-powered video-call tool for Android in January, Duolingo has expanded the feature to additional languages, aiming to boost subscription growth by enabling users to practice natural conversations across a broader linguistic range. Duolingo's gross margin benefited this quarter from lower-than-expected AI costs, as the decline in margin from expanding Max and AI features was much smaller than the company had originally expected. "The cost of calling AI tools has come down a lot. Ads also did better; ads are not a big part of our business, but it turned out that it helped margin a little bit as well," CFO Matt Skaruppa told Reuters. Duolingo leverages generative AI to create and personalize bite-sized lessons across more than 100 language courses. In April, CEO Luis von Ahn said that after taking 12 years to develop the first 100 courses, the company's AI tools helped it introduce 148 new courses in roughly one year. Duolingo expects revenue for the third quarter to be in the range of $257 million to $261 million, compared to analysts' estimates of $253 million, according to data compiled by LSEG. The firm also forecast an adjusted core profit of $288.1 million to $295.5 million for 2025. Sign in to access your portfolio
The Star
6 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Uber bets on loyalty program to drive growth, unveils $20 billion buyback plan
(Reuters) -Uber unveiled a $20 billion stock buyback program and forecast its third-quarter bookings above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as the ride-hailing and delivery services company benefits from growing adoption of its paid loyalty program. The company said members for its $9.99 "Uber One" program jumped 60% in June to more than 36 million from a year earlier, and more than one-third of its bookings were coming from them. These users are crucial for Uber as they engage with both its services, generating more than three times the profit compared to that from users who use just one service. To draw more people to the loyalty program, Uber held a week-long event in May that offered discounts and deals across rides, food delivery and groceries. The company added half a million users over the course of the week, Uber said on Wednesday. Its shares were down about 1.5% in premarket trading after initial volatility following the results. The stock, which is one of the top performing stocks on the S&P 500 index , has surged 48% this year. Both Uber and rival Lyft, which reports results after markets close, are under investor pressure to prove that they can maintain growth even as the North American ride-hailing market saturates. Uber expects current-quarter gross bookings, a measure of the total dollar value of transactions, to be between $48.25 billion and $49.75 billion, while analysts' estimate $47.3 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. The forecast followed a better-than-expected 18.2% jump in gross bookings in the second quarter that was powered by a 24.6% rise at Uber's delivery business and an 18.8% growth in its mobility unit. Uber benefited in the June quarter from increased commuter demand during weekdays, with riders using its "Price Lock Pass" to take over six additional monthly commute trips on average. The subscription, which offers fixed pricing on selected routes for $2.99 a month, is part of Uber's broader strategy to drive habitual usage, and is now available in more than 10 major cities across the U.S. and Brazil. Uber's second-quarter net income rose to 63 cents per share from 47 cents a year earlier, in line with estimates, according to data compiled by LSEG. The company expects adjusted core profit of $2.19 billion to $2.29 billion for the current quarter, largely above analysts' average estimate of $2.22 billion. Uber, which does not own technology for robotaxis, is betting on partnerships in the sector to boost growth in its mobility segment in the coming years. The company now has more than 20 tie-ups in the hotly contested self-driving technology space, including its latest partnership for self-driving vehicles with electric-vehicle maker Lucid and startup Nuro. Uber's latest buyback program adds to the $7 billion authorization announced in early 2024. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Rivian loss bigger than expected on higher costs, lower credit income
By Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy (Reuters) -Rivian Automotive reported a higher-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday as disruption in supply of rare earth metals used to make parts of its electric vehicles raised costs and income from credits sold to traditional automakers dwindled. Shares of the automaker fell 4% in trading after the bell. China's curbs on the export of heavy rare earth metals —essential components for motors — sharply increased material costs and disrupted supply chains, driving up the cost of EV production in the U.S. The company reported an adjusted loss per share of 80 cents for the second quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of 65 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG. Rivian also flagged a bigger adjusted core loss this year, expecting it to between $2 billion and $2.25 billion, compared with $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion previously forecast. The company largely blamed a tapering in the value of U.S. regulatory credits for the higher loss estimate. The elimination of penalties for automakers not meeting fuel economy standards by President Donald Trump's administration has drastically reduced demand for regulatory credits, which companies like Rivian previously sold to traditional automakers to help them avoid emissions fines. The company delivered 10,661 vehicles in the second quarter, marking a 22% decline from the same period a year earlier, as Rivian limited production to prepare for its 2026 model year launch. Earlier this year, the company slashed its 2025 deliveries forecast to 40,000 to 46,000 vehicles from an initial 46,000 to 51,000, citing U.S. tariffs resulting in cost pressures that dampened demand. The company said it will pause production for one week less in the second half of 2025 to integrate key components and prepare for the launch of the R2 SUV next year. The $7,500 federal EV tax credit expires at the end of September, eliminating a key competitive advantage that has driven electric vehicle demand, but analysts anticipate a surge in third-quarter sales as consumers rush to purchase EVs before losing access to the incentive. The company said it expects a record number of deliveries in the third quarter across its consumer and commercial vehicle segments. Revenue for the second quarter stood at $1.3 billion, surpassing analysts' average estimate of $1.28 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Cash and cash equivalents were $4.81 billion at the end of the June-quarter, compared with $4.69 billion in the preceding three-month period. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
