Last month it was reported that Discord is in final stages for a potential takeover and Microsoft was one of the companies bidding to acquire the service. According to the reports, Microsoft was willing to offer over $10 billion to acquire the company. However, Microsoft was not the only company trying to acquire the platform. Discord also held discussions with Epic Games and Amazon in the past but they were not fruitful.
Now, a new report from The Wall Street Journal claims that Discord has ended discussions with Microsoft. The company has decided to reject Microsoft's bid and is planning to go for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to raise the money. In case you don't know, an IPO is the first time a company's shares are offered to the public for subscription. This allows a company to raise money from the public by giving the shareholders a piece of its business.
This is not the first failed attempt by Microsoft to buy a popular social platform in recent times. Last year, Microsoft was the front runner trying to acquire TikTok when former President Donald Trump tried to force ByteDance to sell the US operations of the company to an American company.
Discord has seen massive growth lately with the company's valuation increasing to $7 billion after the latest funding round in December. The company also generated over $130 Million in 2020, up from $45 Million in 2019.
Update: Discord plans to raise up to $140 million in a Series H round funding led by Greenoaks Capital. Discord co-founder and CEO Jason Citron gave the following statement to TechCrunch:
We are humbled and honored by the growth we’ve seen among so many incredible and diverse communities that have made Discord their place to hang out. As we look to 2021, we are excited about what we have in store and plan to use this funding to help make Discord even better – both for our free service and our Nitro subscribers.
According to Prime Unicorn, Discord's most recent share price is $280.2487, up from $144.1809 during the Series G round of funding. The latest round of funding will push Discord's valuation to $7 billion and set it up perfectly for an IPO in the future.
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