Discord Ends $10 Billion Acquisition Talks with Microsoft

Discord, the popular gaming communication platform, has halted all talks of acquisition by Microsoft and other major buyers as of Tuesday, April 20.

A few companies had been courting the service since as early as late March 2021--Microsoft among the biggest names. Things seemed to be going well until recently when Discord made the decision not to sell. According to the Wall Street Journal, sources close to the deal explained, "Discord is performing well and prefers to stay independent at this time."

Discord Ends $10 Billion Acquisition Talks with Microsoft

The ending of the talks should come as no surprise to those keeping tabs on Discord as a platform. It hosts nearly 140 million concurrent users at the time of writing and reportedly amassed around $130 million in 2020. Clearly, the company doesn't exactly need any help in the financial or outreach departments.

This comes as a blow to Microsoft who has been attempting to buy out several social media services typically popular with younger users. Microsoft put in a bid to buy TikTok last November following its abandonment of Mixer. However, despite its troubles with the Trump administration at the time, TikTok ultimately remained out of reach.

Mixer, itself, has stood out as something of a failed experiment to Microsoft. After all, they are the gaming retailer behind the prolific console, Xbox. It appears that Mixer simply couldn't find its footing among more prevalent competitors such as Facebook Gaming and Twitch.

Discord has since hinted that it may be open to restarting this conversation in the future. The exact criteria for that, however, remains to be seen.