Discord, the popular community chatting platform, may soon be seeing a massive deal. The big tech company Microsoft is reportedly in talks to purchase the platform for $10 billion. Details of the conversation are still scarce but this Microsoft Discord acquisition would become part of Microsoft’s ever-expanding reach.
Motivation to Purchase
Discord got its start in 2015, and since then, it’s become wildly popular for communities and friends. Discord is a chatting, video calling and livestreaming platform for gaming. However, people use the servers for countless other interests like music and movies, too.
As a user, you get texting, calling and livestreaming for free, but you can also upgrade to the Nitro plan for even more features for chatting. It’s clear that such a connected platform has seen drastic growth during the pandemic when people must stay apart.
Through this community-centric approach, Discord has drawn in over 100 million active monthly users across 6.7 million active servers. Thus, this success put Discord in the spotlight, with Microsoft now moving in as a potential buyer.
If the two companies reach a deal, it would likely come out to $10 billion after Discord reached a valuation of $7 billion at the end of 2020. Its drastic growth is sure to add to the massive scale of this deal.
Still, it’s unclear what Discord will do. The company has also had conversations with Amazon and Epic Games in the past, of which the details are also unclear. The platform could ultimately go public instead of selling itself, too.
Microsoft’s Expansion
The potential Microsoft Discord purchase would be the latest in a long line of Microsoft’s attempts to expand.
Discord, specifically, would help the big tech company make up for its failure with Mixer, which was supposed to be a livestreaming platform. Microsoft was also in the running to purchase TikTok when former President Trump had initially mandated that ByteDance sell it to an American company. That deal fell through, too.
Still, in 2020, Microsoft saw much more success with its acquisition of ZeniMax, owner of Bethesda, for $7.5 billion. This Microsoft Discord purchase would be on par to be just as massive.
As a user, though, what would this deal mean for you?
Things could go south — just look at the monumental flop of the Verizon-Tumblr acquisition. Once worth $1 billion under Yahoo, Verizon ended up selling Tumblr for a mere $3 million in the end. The content changes on the platform sent the once-massive social media site into the ground.
Could the same thing happen with Discord? It’s a possibility that Microsoft could make changes to the platform that users don’t like. However, since Microsoft is constantly trying to expand, it’s more likely that they’ll keep things mostly the same to prevent any money loss — assuming a deal goes through. The conversation with Microsoft could fall through, and Discord could go public instead.
Rest assured, Discord is here to stick around for a while.
Discord’s Impact
Such drastic growth from Discord can be rare, which makes it a platform to watch. The Microsoft Discord acquisition is no doubt a top possibility, but Discord’s future could go in a number of directions.
As a user, would you look forward to a Microsoft acquisition? Would you prefer Discord continues to operate on its own?