Discord ends buyout talks with Microsoft

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 Update on 04/21/2021: As rumors circulated insistently about a potential takeover of Discord by Microsoft for an amount close to 10 billion dollars, the textual and voice exchange platform has finally put an end to these discussions, reports the Wall Street Journal. Discord wants to focus on growing its business while remaining an independent company and could take the lead in an IPO. However, some observers have told the WSJ that talks about a buyout could eventually resume one day.

Original article: Microsoft is said to be in talks to buy Discord, a text and voice exchange platform popular with video game players. The amount of such an acquisition could amount to more than 10 billion dollars, according to Bloomberg which specifies, however, that the agreement is still far from being concluded. In the past, Discord has reportedly had similar discussions with Epic Games and Amazon.

The Discord boom with the pandemicDiscord is said to be in discussions with several potential buyers, of which Microsoft is one. But the start-up could also choose an IPO instead of a sale. Microsoft and Discord declined to comment on the information to Bloomberg.

Discord is known as a community platform allowing video game players to communicate for free by video, orally and in writing. The discussion groups are divided into specific rooms (public or private), but the identity of the users remains the same throughout the network. It is also possible for users to chat head to head. This social network has experienced a real boom with the Covid-19 pandemic and its use has greatly diversified.

Study group, dance class, reading class and others have started using the platform for their virtual meetings. Today Discord claims more than 100 million monthly active users and wants to continue its diversification beyond the gaming community. The platform raised $ 100 million last year and was then valued at $ 7 billion.

A complement to Teams, an asset for Xbox, a great contract for AzureMicrosoft already has a collaborative messaging service with Teams, which also allows videoconferencing. But this platform is intended for the corporate world, and Microsoft seems to be looking for another one that can provide it with a community of general public users. For a while, the multinational (which also owns the LinkedIn network) seemed interested in TikTok’s assets in the United States (when Donald Trump was pushing for this sale) and held discussions to take over Pinterest.

The acquisition of Discord would make all the more sense for Microsoft as it is already one of the major players in the video game industry with its Xbox division. Such a buyout would go in the direction of its strategy to refocus its offer towards subscriptions to services accessible from the cloud, in particular its Xbox Game Pass Ultimate platform. He would also continue the momentum of Satya Nadella’s business in terms of buyouts. The multinational recently took over Zenimax, which owns renowned video game studios like Bethesda, Id and Arkane. An acquisition amounting to 7.5 billion dollars.

Finally, it should be noted that Discord today relies on Google Cloud. If Microsoft were to buy the service, it would move to its own Azure cloud and would be a great operation in this very competitive sector.

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