Discord is ending talks to sell itself to Microsoft or other companies, The Wall Street Journal reports. The popular online chat app was reportedly in talks to sell to Microsoft in March for a price that valued Discord at over $10 billion.
Discord was reportedly in talks with at least three other companies besides Microsoft. Other past potential suitors included both Amazon and Epic Games, according to Bloomberg. But even with the big-name options, Discord has reportedly decided to stay independent and consider a potential public listing to build on its success. Discord has around 140 million monthly users and earned about $130 million in revenue in 2020 but still isn’t profitable, according to the WSJ.
Microsoft’s interest in Discord had a lot to do with the latter’s role as a home for online communities. The app is a destination for creators cultivating their own forums as well as homegrown groups centered on video and tabletop roleplaying games. Outside of its Xbox and Surface devices, Microsoft doesn’t have a big consumer-facing way to be a part of most people’s day-to-day lives. It’s opened up Teams for personal use, but Discord has built-in familiarity and doesn’t read as enterprise software. The Wall Street Journal writes that both Discord and Microsoft are still open to renewed talks — but for now, Discord is going its own way.
Update April 20th, 4:41PM ET: Added additional context from Bloomberg.