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Report: Discord holding "exclusive" sale discussions with Microsoft

Negotiations have reached an "advanced" stage, deal could close next month

Report: Discord holding "exclusive" sale discussions with Microsoft

Chat platform Discord is apparently in negotiations with Microsoft over a potential sale.

That's according to The Wall Street Journal, which says that the two firms are in "advanced" talks and that a deal could be completed in April. Word that Discord was up for sale broke earlier in the week, with Microsoft named as one of the parties apparently interested in buying the chat platform. The firm might also be interested in going public. 

Discord is reportedly valued at over $10 billion, an increase on the $7 billion valuation that the company had at the end of 2020 which itself was double the valuation it boasted just six months earlier in June of last year.

Though it started as a games-focused app, Discord is looking to expand beyond games. This follows an attempt to turn itself into something of a games hub where developers and publishers could sell their releases to consumers and keep 90 per cent of revenue. In 2019, the firm decided to drop the storefront service, instead allowing companies to sell directly to their audience. 

For the full story head over to PCGamesInsider.biz.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.