Details of this potential move emerged on the fourth day of the Justice Department’s trial aiming to address Google’s search monopoly. Among its suggestions, the DOJ has proposed that Judge Amit Mehta consider breaking up Google by ordering the sale of Chrome. This browser is deemed by the agency as a crucial tool for distributing Google’s search services, giving it a competitive advantage. Yahoo isn’t alone in this interest; although DuckDuckGo’s CEO mentioned financial limitations, representatives from both Perplexity and OpenAI have also shown interest in acquiring Chrome.

Recognizing the strategic significance of a web browser for search, Yahoo is either looking to develop its own or acquire one. Yahoo Search General Manager, Brian Provost, clarified that approximately 60% of search actions occur via a web browser, mainly through the address bar. Since last summer, Yahoo has been “actively developing” a browser prototype to explore launching it in the market. Provost also noted that Yahoo is in “ongoing” discussions with various companies about potentially acquiring a browser, though he did not reveal which companies are involved.

For Yahoo, prototyping its own browser will take six to nine months, Provost estimated. Acquiring Chrome would likely be a much faster way to ramp up to scale. Provost called Chrome “arguably the most important strategic player on the web,” and estimated Yahoo’s search market share could jump from 3 percent to double digits if it were able to buy the browser. He estimated the deal would cost tens of billions of dollars, and said Yahoo would be able to secure that funding with the backing of its owner, Apollo Global Management. Apollo actually owns a browser brand that was at the center of a different antitrust case, but Provost said he wouldn’t consider it an active browser. The brand’s name? NetScape.