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Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

cnbc.com

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Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#31

Post by kube-system »

viraptor wrote: post #13

It was nice knowing them. > less than 10% of organizations have adopted a secure browser Yes Gartner, let's invent a "secure enterprise browser", because there's too much interoperability on the web - there's definitely some business on splitting that up. I'm sure atlassian people love that idea.

> let's invent a "secure enterprise browser", because there's too much interoperability on the web

Enterprise browsers are an existing category, and even Google offers an enterprise version of Chrome.

The idea of an enterprise browser is that all of the interoperability that has been built has been between the desktop and web servers. Most desktop browsers don't have many features that allow an organization to manage them, beyond managed policies which honestly aren't that great. For the most part, standard desktop browsers are a big hole in both inbound and outbound security.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#32

Post by utyop22 »

amrrs wrote: post #29

Surprising I don't think Atlassian hasn't even recovered from Loom acquisition. It was good for Loom but hardly any positive impact for Atlassian. Now Arc and Dia - it seems to be an obsession to acquire an AI BROWSER

Its just funny to watch isnt it.

The reality is, most people at the top of these firms had great initial success because they had some advantage but over time, you realise that advantage acquired can be explained more by luck than skill.

Very few can have sustained success.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#33

Post by viraptor »

jgalt212 wrote: post #19
viraptor wrote: post #13

It was nice knowing them. > less than 10% of organizations have adopted a secure browser Yes Gartner, let's invent a "secure enterprise browser", because there's too much interoperability on the web - there's definitely some business on splitting that up. I'm sure atlassian people love that idea.

> less than 10% of organizations have adopted a secure browser That's the value prop (along with better application interop+) of the Here browser. + I do think the File System API did somewhat mitigate this value prop. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System...

I'm not sure we need a new browser for that. Between corporate proxies filtering content and the ability to disable JIT by policy, you get 99% there with security. Add some containers for zero trust / auto-sso and we'd be there... There's really no reason to make a new browser.

It could be a few options away on Firefox for example if people cared about the "secure" part more than the "enterprise sales" part.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#34

Post by 4ggr0 »

Cu3PO42 wrote: post #26
arnvald wrote: post #17

I really appreciate that there's a company trying to reimagine browsers. Arc was an interesting idea, I used it for a few months, but in the end I switched back to Firefox. I haven't tried Dia yet, and now I'm not sure if I should. I do think that selling a browser is going to be an extremely difficult task, so having an enterprise software machine with huge customer base might help it, but Atlassian strikes me as a…

If you liked Arc, you should try Zen. I understand it brings many of the same ideas to a Firefox base.

+1, i used firefox since my childhood, never interested by Arc because it's idiotic to me that a browser requires an account. a while back someone suggested Zen, i now use it as my main browser since a bit over a month. really happy :)

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#35

Post by threetonesun »

ozgrakkurt wrote: post #12
threetonesun wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zawinski's Law in action. I suppose the good thing with AI is we're coming close to being able to roll our own versions of whatever we want when the software we were using ascends to the enterprise plane.

I would like to see you and all people think that they can roll own software with AI come together with AI as well and write chromium one day

I don't think I was suggesting you build your own Chromium so much as do what all these other browser projects do and fork it. The "software A got too bloated so we released software B" cycle is eternal but I'm optimistic it's moving even closer to the actual user than it has been in a while.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#36

Post by techjamie »

secfirstmd wrote: post #24

ARC always feels like a feature not a product. Don't see how Atlassian connection is really gonna make either better.

It has the kind of buzzwords to get executives to buy in, who will then force it on their employees. I mean, if you offered a CEO an "Enterprise AI Browser," it feels like the sort of thing they'd salivate over. Then they can go tell the investors that they're AI now and line can go up.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#37

Post by warthog »

Shank wrote: post #25

I would've actually expected a buyer like OpenAI or Anthropic, if I'm being perfectly honest. Atlassian is such a strange buyer. $610m in cash is really low in the grand scheme of AI pricing too. If they're only worth $610m, I feel like this says a lot that "AI browsers" aren't actually worth that much. Remember, Instagram was $1b. The Windsurf acquihire was $2.4b and there are surely a lot more people in business th…

Considering they never made revenue, there must be more than one bidder - otherwise the price could have been much lower. I remember them raising at $500 MM at the last round

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#38

Post by joeguilmette »

dcchambers wrote: post #18

The thing the Browser Company does best is marketing. I have always felt like they really wanted to market their products more than build them. The founders should let Dia/Arc go and just go into product marketing. Many would hire them.

I always wondered who did their marketing. Their Arc Act II video was so good I watched it a few times (https://youtu.be/WIeJF3kL5ng?si=R1fHA87355dXDuZH).

I immediately thought Sandwich made it. Some of their stuff like https://youtu.be/5GeR8XTWR3M?si=RX-NBCMicnUPw1jA is so good I just periodically watch it.

If The Browser Company folks made that video, their superpower is really marketing and you are actually correct. But I feel like it must have been an agency.

Re: Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company

#39

Post by neodymiumphish »

Arc was actually full of some really great ideas. There was plenty of nonsense, but their Air Traffic Control feature is still unmatched on other browsers. Multi-container/profile browsing is managed so poorly across other browsers.

Dia is a joke, but I guess it has a chance in the age of ever-more-popular AI functionality.

My only curiosity is whether this means that Atlassian will lock these browsers down to just paying customers or keep some limited functionality versions available for personal use. Of all the companies who might’ve bought TBC, I did not expect Atlassian, based on the services they offer already.

Then again, all the potential anti-trust stuff happening with Google and the push to separate Google from Chrome could be a bit catalyst for this move.

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