5 ms·

$610M, all cash??? How were they worth that much... all they seemed to ever do was rebrand

Waraqa 1y ago
"Arc isn’t just a Chromium fork. It runs on custom infrastructure we call ADK — the Arc Development Kit. Think of it as an internal SDK for building browsers (especially those with imaginative interfaces). That’s our secret sauce. It lets ex-iOS engineers prototype native browser UI quickly, without touching C++." https://open.substack.com/pub/browsercompany/p/letter-to-arc-members-2025 https://open.substack.com/pub/browsercompany/p/letter-to-arc...
- buzzert 1y ago
  Probably a Swift wrapper for the Chromium Embedded Framework.
- rafram 1y ago
  For all those playing at home: this blog post contains 46 em-dashes.
- scosman 1y ago
  A UI framework? What’s the other $608m for?
  - Groxx 1y ago
    Yeah, I kinda read that as "it's not just a chromium fork with additional code. the code is organized. nobody has ever done that before!"
  - ale 1y ago
    Just like the old Carlin joke. Made me chuckle.
    - potamic 1y ago
      What was the joke?
    - shruggedatlas 1y ago
      I wanted you to know that, due to this comment, I "lost" approximately 45 minutes watching George Carlin's best jokes
  - ausssssie 1y ago
    Or... A UI framework? what's the other $612m for?
- manquer 1y ago
  Is a browser SDK for iOS worth that kind of money targeted users who are comfortable with Objective-C and not C++ even a market of note. It would be one thing if they said it is for say JS developers or something a-la electron there are plenty of apps from MS teams to slack to linear etc who perhaps would pay for that enough, but swift /objective C dev not comfortable with c++ would be minuscule market ?
  - daveidol 1y ago
    ObjC is mostly dead, and most Swift devs are not comfortable with C++.
    - manquer 1y ago
      C++ isn't all that much harder or different from Swift to learn. They play fairly well with each other, you can import and call C++ quite easily from Swift. It is not like switching from a REPL, browser friendly,inferred typed forgiving language like say JavaScript to Rust with the occasionally cryptic compiler, the unforgiving borrow checker and ownership concepts. Perhaps people are less comfortable with the libraries and SDKs and tooling from the C++ world for app development. I didn't imagine that such a market was worth buying a company for $610M in 2025 when most apps are web based in one way or other.
- cosmicgadget 1y ago
  Sounds perfect for Atlassian's love of "imaginative" interfaces.
- hahn-kev 1y ago
  How's that different from Electron?
- weaksauce 1y ago
  that's kinda funny since that's basically exactly how firefox does it with the chrome of the browser being javascript and html and css itself.
- IshKebab 1y ago
  Cool, but $600m cool? I don't see how.
theappsecguy 1y ago
I mean have you seen some of the valuations for VSCode forks with some AI slapped on haha. I agree that this seems a lot for what I assume is a product with no solid revenue stream
djoldman 1y ago
100% agree. The odds of this investment paying off feel slim to none.
guluarte 1y ago
It would have made sense if they had a large user base or groundbreaking tech, but they are just a Chrome fork with a very niche set of users.
NoteyComplexity 1y ago
Probably they were just chasing the hype because the word AI appeared in the browser, considering the news mentions “browser with AI features”. So does their acquisition news. I hope I am wrong.

"Arc isn’t just a Chromium fork. It runs on custom infrastructure we call ADK — the Arc Development Kit. Think of it as an internal SDK for building browsers (especially those with imaginative interfaces). That’s our secret sauce. It lets ex-iOS engineers prototype native browser UI quickly, without touching C++." https://open.substack.com/pub/browsercompany/p/letter-to-arc-members-2025 https://open.substack.com/pub/browsercompany/p/letter-to-arc...

buzzert 1y ago
Probably a Swift wrapper for the Chromium Embedded Framework.
rafram 1y ago
For all those playing at home: this blog post contains 46 em-dashes.
scosman 1y ago
A UI framework? What’s the other $608m for?
- Groxx 1y ago
  Yeah, I kinda read that as "it's not just a chromium fork with additional code. the code is organized. nobody has ever done that before!"
- ale 1y ago
  Just like the old Carlin joke. Made me chuckle.
  - potamic 1y ago
    What was the joke?
  - shruggedatlas 1y ago
    I wanted you to know that, due to this comment, I "lost" approximately 45 minutes watching George Carlin's best jokes
- ausssssie 1y ago
  Or... A UI framework? what's the other $612m for?
manquer 1y ago
Is a browser SDK for iOS worth that kind of money targeted users who are comfortable with Objective-C and not C++ even a market of note. It would be one thing if they said it is for say JS developers or something a-la electron there are plenty of apps from MS teams to slack to linear etc who perhaps would pay for that enough, but swift /objective C dev not comfortable with c++ would be minuscule market ?
- daveidol 1y ago
  ObjC is mostly dead, and most Swift devs are not comfortable with C++.
  - manquer 1y ago
    C++ isn't all that much harder or different from Swift to learn. They play fairly well with each other, you can import and call C++ quite easily from Swift. It is not like switching from a REPL, browser friendly,inferred typed forgiving language like say JavaScript to Rust with the occasionally cryptic compiler, the unforgiving borrow checker and ownership concepts. Perhaps people are less comfortable with the libraries and SDKs and tooling from the C++ world for app development. I didn't imagine that such a market was worth buying a company for $610M in 2025 when most apps are web based in one way or other.
cosmicgadget 1y ago
Sounds perfect for Atlassian's love of "imaginative" interfaces.
hahn-kev 1y ago
How's that different from Electron?
weaksauce 1y ago
that's kinda funny since that's basically exactly how firefox does it with the chrome of the browser being javascript and html and css itself.
IshKebab 1y ago
Cool, but $600m cool? I don't see how.

theappsecguy 1y ago

I mean have you seen some of the valuations for VSCode forks with some AI slapped on haha. I agree that this seems a lot for what I assume is a product with no solid revenue stream

djoldman 1y ago

100% agree. The odds of this investment paying off feel slim to none.

guluarte 1y ago

It would have made sense if they had a large user base or groundbreaking tech, but they are just a Chrome fork with a very niche set of users.

NoteyComplexity 1y ago

Probably they were just chasing the hype because the word AI appeared in the browser, considering the news mentions “browser with AI features”. So does their acquisition news. I hope I am wrong.