Ecosia, a non-profit search engine headquartered in Germany, has officially made an acquisition offer to Google, hoping to gain control of the Chrome browser for $0, but will provide Google with a 40% profit share in the future.
The popularity of Ecosia search comes from the company's commitment to environmental protection of the earth. The company uses most of its profits (after operating costs) to plant trees. Currently, Ecosia has planted 237 million trees.
Acquiring Chrome for $0 is not an aimless move by Ecosia. On the contrary, Ecosia hopes to obtain control of Chrome and transform it into a foundation. Ecosia will assume the operational responsibility for the Chrome browser for the next 10 years, while Google will retain its ownership and intellectual property rights.
According to the agreement, Ecosia will use about 60% of the profits for climate and environmental projects after gaining control of Chrome, and the remaining 40% of the profits will be allocated directly to Google, and Ecosia will not charge any fees in the entire process (including its own actual operating expenses).
Ecosia even predicts that Chrome can create $1 trillion in revenue in the next 10 years, which would give Google a share of $400 billion in profits. Although it seems impressive, the question is how Chrome can create the equivalent of $100 billion in profits every year.
On the surface, this $0 acquisition offer is indeed unrealistic, and the possibility of ultimate success does not seem high, but it may not be a bad thing for Google to hand over Chrome to a non-profit competitor, at least in public opinion this can improve everyone's attitude towards Google.