Microsoft continued pursuit of major acquisitions has carried into 2021 with assertiveness. The company's most recent target being the popular digital VoIP, chat, and community platform Discord. News broke in late March that Microsoft was trying to acquire Discord for a price point around $10 billion, which many expected to see carried out. There appears to have been a dramatic shift, however, as Discord's talks with Microsoft have now reportedly ended unsuccessfully.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Discord has ended talks with Microsoft, as well as other potential acquisition partners. Details regarding the situation are thin, so it isn't entirely clear why Discord ended discussions with Microsoft. All that's known is that Microsoft and Discord were in "advanced talks" and that it's possible that those talks could be "rekindled" going forward. Microsoft, it can be assumed, continues to be interested in Discord.

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For the time being, however, it seems like Discord is going to pursue a different path. The WSJ speculates that Discord could instead be considering an IPO, taking the private company public and allowing Discord to raise capital from public investors. Discord hired Tomasz Marcinkowski as its finance chief mid-March, which could signal movement in that new direction. Discord, however, has made no public statement to that effect. It's just one possible path forward now that the Microsoft acquisition is no longer a certainty.

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The exact nature of Microsoft's interest in Discord isn't clear. Discord offers a variety of services on its platform, but is entirely PC-based. It's possible that Microsoft bringing Discord to the Xbox platform alone would justify the acquisition. Discord's community-based VoIP would be an expansion of the Xbox platform's current party chat functionality, plus Discord's new streaming functionality would be an interesting way of replacing the now-defunct Mixer streaming platform. Of course, Microsoft could have kept Discord entirely PC-focused, too, expanding on its VoIP offerings like Skype.

Discord would have been just the latest acquisition for Microsoft. In the past year, Microsoft has made nine different acquisitions, including Nuance Communications and its speech recognition software, the Smash.gg esports organization tool, and ZeniMax Media.

The end of current talks with Discord is unlikely to slow down Microsoft's aggressive acquisition efforts. The company has spoken openly about its continued aggressiveness when it comes to acquisitions, whether it be new game studios or technology companies. Discord, like Microsoft's efforts to acquire TikTok before it, has remained out of reach, but Microsoft's unlikely to let that slow it down.

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Source: WSJ