Discord looking to sell for over $10 billion, and Microsoft is in the running - reports

Discord is currently in acquisition talks.

According to new reports, voice, text and community chat app Discord is in talks to be acquired for over $10 billion.

GamesBeat initially report that Discord was looking to sell, and that it has entered into "an exclusive acquisition discussion" with one company, though it was not named. Later, Bloomberg revealed that it has heard similar, and more directly named Microsoft as a potential buyer.

The two reports indicate that Discord has been looking for a buyer for a while now, as a potential alternative to going public. Discord is operated by a private company, and the business is not yet profitable, which is one of few hurdles it has to clear if it intends to go public.

That said, Discord is growing rapidly and like many tech companies, saw a massive influx of new users as a result of the pandemic. Discord's services, however, can be used entirely for free, so while it has over 140 million monthly active users, they're not all monetised.

"There’s a big opportunity to bundle Discord’s premium offering, Nitro, into the Game Pass service to drive more subscriptions from the last reported 18 million," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Matthew Kanterman.