Report: Microsoft in “Exclusive” Talks with Discord
- Paul Thurrott
- Mar 26, 2021
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18
Well, this escalated. The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft could finalize its acquisition of Discord for at least $10 billion as soon as next month.
News that Microsoft is pursuing the social media/messaging service arrived earlier this week, with multiple news outlets independently reporting that talks were still in the early stages and that Discord would most likely choose to go public instead. But the WSJ report contradicts those earlier stories, claiming that the software giant is “in advanced talks” to finalize a deal. Assuming negotiations don’t fall apart, that deal could be completed next month.
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As the publication notes, Discord was originally focused largely on video gamers, but the COVID-19 pandemic drove a surge in popularity that extends far beyond that one market. Now, it stands amidst a growing selection of popular communication solutions as a solution for people to congregate virtually in a variety of ways.
Given this, it’s likely that Microsoft has plans for Discord that go beyond the obvious Xbox linkups, and CEO Satya Nadella stated in the wake of the aborted Tik Tok acquisition that his firm was very much interested in communities that it could operate alongside GitHub, Minecraft, Teams, and Xbox.