Microsoft reportedly in talks to acquire Discord for more than 10 billion USD

Dimapur, March 23 (EMN): Fresh off of its acquisition of ZeniMax Media Inc., Microsoft is in talks yet again to acquire Discord, a popular video-game chat service, for more than $10 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Discord has more than 140 million monthly active users and is by far the most popular chat service used by gamers around the world. The Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to the rise in popularity of the chat platform as people were confined to their homes and turned to video-games for entertainment.

According to a report by Venture Beat, “Discord is exploring its options for a sale in the wake of interest from multiple parties that want to buy the company.” It may be mentioned that Discord has also held discussions with Epic Games Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. regarding the sale of the company. However, some sources have told Bloomberg that the company could most-likely go public if the acquisition talks do not materialise.

The news of Microsoft‘s rumoured interest in acquiring the San-Francisco based company comes at the time after it was revealed that Microsoft had officially taken over ZeniMax Media Inc., owner of The Elder Scrolls and Doom publisher Bethesda Softworks. As a result, it is confirmed that some Bethesda games will be exclusive to the Xbox console.

Microsoft has previously tried to acquire social-media apps like Tik-Tok and Pinterest Inc., and Discord seems to be the company’s next target to fulfil its plan to acquire assets with thriving communities.

Discord is a free-to-download app for Mobile and PC that lets its users communicate through text, video and audio in real-time. Though it is used primarily by gamers, it has become popular with various communities like anime, cinema, technology and music among others.