Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy Discord ‘for $10 billion’

Microsoft is in talks to buy Discord for more than $10 billion, according to a new report.

Bloomberg claims that the chat community service has been talking privately to a number of potential buyers, and Microsoft is one of the companies in the running.

The deal is far from a foregone conclusion, however – one source told Bloomberg that no deal was imminent yet, and another suggested that Discord might want to go public instead of selling itself.

Analysts say Microsoft may want to buy Discord so it can add the service’s premium version, Discord Nitro, as a perk for subscribing to Xbox Game Pass.

“Microsoft possibly acquiring Discord makes a lot of sense as it continues to reshape its gaming business more toward software and services,” said Bloomberg’s intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman.

Microsoft recently completed a deal to acquire ZeniMax, the parent company of Bethesda. This led to the majority of Bethesda’s last-gen releases being added to the Xbox Game Pass library.

The company also has a long-term content deal with EA to provide an EA Play membership as part of Game Pass Ultimate at no extra cost, meaning subscribers also get access to full versions of EA back catalogue titles. Last week the EA Play deal was expanded to include PC games.

Discord, meanwhile, received a rebrand last summer as the company attempts to move away from its focus on gaming and attract a wider audience.

Further reading

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“This is just the beginning of Discord’s journey to be a place for all of your communities to talk and build relationships,” Discord founder and CEO Jason Citron said at the time.

“Many of you have already signed up for Nitro, which has taken off over the last couple of years, and our recent $100 million in additional funding will help accelerate our investment in the community, new features, and the company.”