Sept 4 (Reuters) - Atlassian ( TEAM ) said on Thursday

it will acquire New York-based startup The Browser Company for

$610 million in cash, moving into the fast-crowding market for

AI-driven browsers.

Startups and incumbents are racing to embed agentic AI

features to browsers, turning them into a workspace that

summarizes pages and takes actions for users.

The New York-based startup's Dia browser, which was launched

earlier this year, faces tough competition from the likes of

Nvidia ( NVDA )-backed Perplexity's Comet and Brave's Leo.

Atlassian ( TEAM ) plans to make Dia its go-to browser for work,

designed to pull together tasks and tools from across the web

and add context in enterprise environments.

Microsoft's ( MSFT ) Edge browser, bundled with Copilot, has

become a staple in enterprise environments due to its

integration with Microsoft ( MSFT ) 365 and built-in security controls,

making it one of the most widely deployed corporate browsers.

But Google's Chrome still dominates the market, holding

about 69% share in August, according to Statcounter.

The Browser Company, founded in 2019, had released the Arc

and Dia browsers. It closed a $50 million Series B round that

valued the startup at $550 million last year, according to

Pitchbook data.

Atlassian's ( TEAM ) venture capital arm had invested in the

startup's $75.5 million Series A round in 2023. Salesforce

Ventures, Figma CEO Dylan Field and former Instacart CEO Fidji

Simo were among its investors.

The team-collaboration software maker said it will fund the

deal using cash from its balance sheet. Atlassian ( TEAM ) had $2.5

billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the June

quarter.

The deal is expected to close in Atlassian's ( TEAM ) fiscal second

quarter, which ends in December, subject to regulatory

approvals, and is not expected to be material to results in

fiscal year 2026-2027.