Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons
license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary
on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the
entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/


            Atlassian Acquires The Browser Company for $610 Million

   Adam Engst

   Atlassian, the Australian company behind workplace tools like Trello,
   Confluence, and Jira, is acquiring The Browser Company of New York for
   $610 million, following an earlier investment from Atlassian's venture
   capital arm. On its Keeping Tabs blog, [1]The Browser Company of New
   York writes:

     Today, The Browser Company of New York is entering into an agreement
     to be acquired by Atlassian in an all-cash transaction. We will
     operate independently, with Dia as our focus. Our objective is to
     bring Dia to the masses.

   Overall, I believe this is a positive move for users of the Arc
   browser. The acquisition gets The Browser Company out of the venture
   capital rat race and moves it under the oversight of Atlassian, best
   known to TidBITS readers for its 2017 acquisition of[2]Trello, the task
   management tool we used extensively during the Take Control days (see
   '[3]Trello Offers Compelling Collaboration Tool,' 9 July 2012).
   Atlassian also develops[4]Jira, a project management platform,
   and[5]Confluence, a collaborative documentation tool, both primarily
   targeted at developers.

   The Browser Company claims it will remain independent and continue to
   focus on Dia. The company has also promised to share long-term plans
   for both Arc and Arc Search, though I have doubts about its roadmap
   after it shifted away from Arc (see '[6]Dia Browser Debuts with
   Contextual AI Chat, But Arc Users Feel Left Behind,' 20 June 2025, and
   '[7]Dia AI Browser Introduces $20 Monthly Pro Plan with Unlimited
   Chat,' 8 August 2025). I'd be happy if those plans turn out to be more
   than acquisition announcement assurances aimed at assuaging anxiety
   about Arc. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

   In Atlassian's press release, CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes accurately points
   out the challenge encountered by modern Web browsers.

     Today's browsers weren't built for work. They were built for
     browsing ' reading the news, watching videos, looking up recipes.
     And sure, you may do some of those things in your browser during the
     workday, but most of those tabs represent a task that needs to get
     done. A meeting to schedule. A design to review. A work item to
     update in Jira. A memo to write. Before you know it, it's hard to
     see through the forest of tabs.

   Cannon-Brookes elaborates on these points in [8]an accompanying video.

   IFRAME:
   [9]https://www.youtube.com/embed/qtNEmBUW5fs?start=147&feature=oembed

   The Browser Company had effectively tackled many of these workflow
   issues in Arc before pivoting to Dia. I occasionally use Dia instead of
   a ChatGPT pinned tab in Arc, but as someone who does real work on the
   Web, Arc's dashboard for single-click navigation among the many
   websites I use daily is far more necessary than Dia's chatbot.
   Hopefully, Atlassian will recognize that knowledge workers need both if
   they're to use Web tools efficiently.

References

   1. https://browsercompany.substack.com/p/your-tuesday-in-2030
   2. https://trello.com/
   3. https://tidbits.com/2012/07/09/trello-offers-compelling-collaboration-tool/
   4. https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
   5. https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence
   6. https://tidbits.com/2025/06/20/dia-browser-debuts-with-contextual-ai-chat-but-arc-users-feel-left-behind/
   7. https://tidbits.com/2025/08/08/dia-ai-browser-introduces-20-monthly-pro-plan-with-unlimited-chat/
   8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtNEmBUW5fs&t=147s
   9. https://www.youtube.com/embed/qtNEmBUW5fs?start=147&feature=oembed

.