In a major twist in the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google, Yahoo has indicated interest in acquiring the Chrome browser.

This comes amid growing speculation that Google may be forced to divest parts of its business, including Chrome, if the court rules in favour of breaking up the tech giant’s perceived monopoly.

This potential divestiture is being discussed as a remedy in the antitrust case, which centres on Google’s alleged search monopoly. The Justice Department argues that Chrome is a major gateway through which users access Google Search and plays a pivotal role in maintaining Google’s dominance in search.

The revelation came during testimony from Brian Provost, Yahoo’s General Manager of Search. Provost described Chrome as a strategic product and, in his words, “arguably the most important strategic player on the web”. He highlighted that about 60% of online search queries originate directly from a web browser, often via the address bar.

Yahoo’s renewed focus on browsers reflects a larger strategic goal. Provost explained that Yahoo has been actively developing a prototype of its web browser internally since last summer, exploring what it would take to bring one to market. This prototype is estimated to take between six to nine months to build. However, he noted that acquiring an established product like Chrome would drastically accelerate Yahoo’s entry into the browser race. 

Acquiring Chrome could potentially push Yahoo’s market share from its current 3% into double digits. However, the cost of acquiring Chrome is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars. Yahoo believes it could pursue such a purchase with the financial backing of its parent company, Apollo Global Management. 

Yahoo, once a dominant player in online search before being overtaken by Google, has been working to revive its technology assets since being acquired by Apollo in 2021. Yahoo isn’t the only company showing interest. 

Read also: OpenAI eyes Google Chrome: a bold move to recode the future of search

While DuckDuckGo’s CEO reportedly couldn’t afford a purchase of this scale, companies like Perplexity and OpenAI have also indicated they would be keen on acquiring the browser if given the chance. Nick Turley, chief of ChatGPT at OpenAI, specifically stated his company’s intent to bid.

Yahoo is already engaged in discussions about potential browser acquisitions, although Provost did not name specific companies. Whether through developing its own browser or acquiring an existing one like Chrome, Yahoo is clearly preparing for a bigger role in the future of web browsing. Judge Amit Mehta is expected to deliver his remedy ruling in the antitrust case later this year.