8 ms·
A few years ago I had thought that an acquisition of this nature was obviously coming sooner or later, but the pool of potential buyers got thinner as Discord g
by ve55 6y ago
A few years ago I had thought that an acquisition of this nature was obviously coming sooner or later, but the pool of potential buyers got thinner as Discord gained more and more of their own leverage and influence. At this point I don't think Discord needs to exit in this way, but it still might be a very appealing option.
If the deal ends up occurring, I'd have to bet it is with either Microsoft or Facebook, both contingent on antitrust (although I feel like they'd be hard on FB here, but not MS, for whatever reason, likely due to media influence). Although other contenders could theoretically include Google or Amazon, it's a bit harder to imagine. Tencent is already a minor investor as well, but selling to a Chinese company would be particularly rough (Same for ByteDance). For these reasons I'd bet on Microsoft, not that my bet matters in the slightest.
Additionally, a lot of Discord users have just keenly realized who it is that actually holds power over their favorite platform, including a large slice of their online social life and a plethora of personal information, from every character they have typed in a direct message to every click they have made in the app, and it is certain not the users themselves. But, at least the "We will not sell your data" clause will have been technically correct (the best kind of correct, of course).
- 0xy 6y agoDiscord is a great fit for Amazon, because Discord+Twitch means they've cornered gaming and can even begin to push into Steam's territory. Amazon will have a large vertical slice of gaming culture that Steam simply doesn't. Given Steam chat languished for years and is still 1/100th of Discord, I don't think Valve care.
- marc__1 6y agoThere are so many 'good fits' as you can fit almost any narrative in a ppt Potential acquirers I could think: Roblox, Elic, SalesForce (Slack), Twilio (Segment CRM), Twitter, Zoom, Peloton (?)
- rphln 6y agoAs someone with no experience whatsoever on economics (i.e., I might not be seeing something critical), I think Amazon is not that weird as a potential buyer: they already own Twitch, and there's probably a huge overlap between the two userbases. They'd have a pretty strong hold on two distinct parts of the gaming community. (Edit: clarification)
- ve55 6y ago(In response to yourself and the other Amazon reply) I mostly agree, especially given Twitch and the potential futures ecosystems there. I think it might be a bit harder with antitrust as well, but don't ask me why that is the case, but it reminds of Congress having antitrust hearings where they drag in Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple, but constantly never included Microsoft, which now seems to be the most likely buyer).