Microsoft is reportedly making plans to acquire Discord Inc. for more than $10 billion. This might signal the company's intention to improve its gaming business in software and services.
Bloomberg reported leaks on the content of the conversation between the two parties. However, the deal and its details have not yet been finalized.
What Is Discord Messaging Software?
Discord is a San Francisco-based company best known for its free platform of communications, especially for gamers. The platform lets you communicate by video, voice, and text with minimal RAM usage. With the pandemic ongoing, their technology has been growing increasingly popular and is used for study groups, online classes, enthusiast clubs, and other virtual gatherings. The system has over 100 million monthly active users utilizing its communication tools. Discord has become more than just a hang-out space and a gamer-centric chat platform, as it has also evolved to one of the best-performing choices for communication apps.
VentureBeat has reported earlier last week that Discord is exploring options of selling their company. The price is hiking up to $10 billion worth of value. This has opened the interest of multiple parties who are willing to buy this company. Epic Games Inc and Amazon.com Inc. are reportedly two possible buyers who have stepped up for discussions. However, Microsoft seems to have beat them in these talks.
Microsoft's Business Investments
Bloomberg reported that the software giant Microsoft has been negotiating with Discord. Xbox chief Phil Spencer is said to be their potential buyer. The direct sources are not disclosed due to the discussions remaining private. However, these sources claimed that Discord is more inclined to go public than sell itself and the company might be just gauging out the interest of Microsoft in the purchase. The representatives for both Microsoft and Discord have not made any comments about these reports.
Since last year, Microsoft has been proactively searching for social-media app purchases such as TikTok and Pinterest Inc. Both are prominently known for their diverse collection of multimedia content snf have an incredible amount of multimedia archives and could provide active users to the market. Talks have been made; however, no decisions have been passed if both parties agreed.
Nonetheless, this bold move from Microsoft might be linked to Xbox business of appealing to its community with subscription perks in the Game Pass offering.
Bloomberg Intelligence Analyst Matthew Kanterman said that Microsoft might be acquiring Discord for its gaming business. "There's a big opportunity to bundle Discord's premium offering, Nitro, into the Game Pass service to drive more subscriptions from the last reported 18 million."
Microsoft has already purchased ZeniMax Media Inc--the parent company of Bethesda Softworks who creatd "Doom," "The Elder Scrolls," and "Fallout"--for $7.5 billion earlier this month. It is evident that the software giant only plans to continue expanding.
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