I would just like to say that I sort of predicted this Missed the age and the amount, which would be correlated, so at least in my own biased opinion I think I was on the right track, although I...
But, my personal hot take: Discord is going to be bought by Microsoft in the next 5 or so years for around 20-25 billion (which will be a great exit for these VCs!). It will integrated as the Xbox's default social platform, and the ability to basically transfer over your social connections to Xbox and maintain compatibility with PC/Mobile/etc at the same time will become a selling point for Xbox as a gaming console.
Missed the age and the amount, which would be correlated, so at least in my own biased opinion I think I was on the right track, although I thought that Discord would keep on trucking as a private company for longer. But perhaps Microsoft just offered a check too big for them to reasonably refuse; it certainly seems like MSFT is going hard into the gaming sector with the recent purchase of Zenimax.
Although I generally agree with the notion that Microsoft can make major acquisitions mostly without ruining them, I’ll also point to what happened to Minecraft. It’s not ruined or even changed...
Although I generally agree with the notion that Microsoft can make major acquisitions mostly without ruining them, I’ll also point to what happened to Minecraft. It’s not ruined or even changed much, but after a long while they decided to require a Microsoft login.
It remains to be seen how that’s going to affect the game. Personally, I don’t care too much about the Microsoft login, as long as it doesn’t bring microtransactions to JE along with it. It’s...
It remains to be seen how that’s going to affect the game. Personally, I don’t care too much about the Microsoft login, as long as it doesn’t bring microtransactions to JE along with it.
It’s always struck me as weird how they’ve continued developing two versions of the game in parallel, especially considering how Java Edition has to be way less profitable than Bedrock. It would obviously piss off a huge portion of the playerbase if they dropped Java Edition, but it’s not like they were making additional money from those players anyway…
That's was what my mind went straight to. All of the youtubers use java and that's a huge amount of free "adverts". Let alone the popular posts of huge builds and such.
That's was what my mind went straight to. All of the youtubers use java and that's a huge amount of free "adverts". Let alone the popular posts of huge builds and such.
This is not the point. Microsoft used to sell softwares. In the last few years, it has been transitioning to a quite different trade: monetizing privacy. They're getting very good at it too: look...
how that’s going to affect the game
This is not the point.
Microsoft used to sell softwares. In the last few years, it has been transitioning to a quite different trade: monetizing privacy. They're getting very good at it too: look at how the stock evolved since Nadella took over.
I can see this concern being valid is most other spheres, but how is privacy compromised by using a Microsoft account for Minecraft? What personal data is Minecraft collecting that Microsoft might...
I can see this concern being valid is most other spheres, but how is privacy compromised by using a Microsoft account for Minecraft? What personal data is Minecraft collecting that Microsoft might find useful?
I frequently hear horror stories from people who have experienced an account hijacking because of Mojang's incredibly lackluster accounts system so I'm not really sure what the downside is here, as this will bring 2FA and significantly better recovery to MC.
It's a different strategy than what antitrust laws were built around. They aren't acquiring everything in 1 industry, they are setting a respectable stake in a few key industries and then dipping...
It's a different strategy than what antitrust laws were built around. They aren't acquiring everything in 1 industry, they are setting a respectable stake in a few key industries and then dipping toes into adjacent ones.
I'm ambivalent on if this is an allowable practice. There's some danger in breadth over depth, but at the same time, a small stake (even for a trillion dollar coporation) leaves plenty of room for a dedicated competitor to overwhelm.
I've seen a lot of people make the comparison to the Skype acquisition, which is both a more direct comparison but also much further in the past, so less direct in some ways.
I've seen a lot of people make the comparison to the Skype acquisition, which is both a more direct comparison but also much further in the past, so less direct in some ways.
I'm confused why everyone in this thread is discussing this like the merger is a foregone conclusion? The article clearly states that this is unofficial, and that the same anonymous sources state...
I'm confused why everyone in this thread is discussing this like the merger is a foregone conclusion? The article clearly states that this is unofficial, and that the same anonymous sources state that they're more likely to go public rather than get bought. Not to mention their previous talks with large companies that didn't lead to anything.
Most people probably didn't read anything except the title, and Bloomberg being a paywalled site doesn't help with that. It's even worse because most titles are written to be more...
Most people probably didn't read anything except the title, and Bloomberg being a paywalled site doesn't help with that. It's even worse because most titles are written to be more definite/sensationalized than the actual story. "Discord has spoken to Microsoft about a potential acquisition, but a deal is unlikely" just doesn't get the same level of attention.
Personally, I'd like to edit titles even more than we already do to try to make them more accurate, but it's a difficult thing to do (and often gets people upset if they don't agree with the edit).
Very interesting. I'd expect them to sell out, there's no way they're worth more than $10 billion public - and Microsoft probably has an pretty big incentive to get Discord's engineers on board...
Very interesting. I'd expect them to sell out, there's no way they're worth more than $10 billion public - and Microsoft probably has an pretty big incentive to get Discord's engineers on board what with the current buggy mess that is Microsoft Teams.
Too bad the Matrix protocol doesn't have a decent desktop client yet (or room groups, or custom emojis, or...).
Microsoft has access to all the resources they need. If they actually cared, they would have fixed Teams long ago. Teams exists so MS can say "don't bother getting Slack (or worse, consider...
Microsoft probably has an pretty big incentive to get Discord's engineers on board what with the current buggy mess that is Microsoft Teams
Microsoft has access to all the resources they need. If they actually cared, they would have fixed Teams long ago. Teams exists so MS can say "don't bother getting Slack (or worse, consider ditching Office in favor of GSuite+Slack), we've got our own." People who are used to Skype for Business and haven't really used Slack much try Teams and are blown away by how much better it is than what they've been putting up with for years, despite all the problems of Teams.
And then the people in charge of purchasing decisions decide "this Teams thing is pretty cool, why do we need Slack?" And then they further integrate into the MS ecosystem since Teams will play nicely with Sharepoint and O365, and then Azure becomes the next logical step.
I'm just waiting for people to realize that records aren't being recorded properly because of the way Teams is built, especially when it comes to governments where those records have to be...
I'm just waiting for people to realize that records aren't being recorded properly because of the way Teams is built, especially when it comes to governments where those records have to be findable, exportable, and searchable by law. That's going to cause some issues.
But first it's going to take journalists to catch up with how they file information requests because I don't think most of them realize they have to specify beyond emails now.
I count myself as a matrix fanboy...so with that bias disclosure out of the way...i wonder if Microsoft were to go all in on matrix, how that would be for the matrix, Teams, etc. ecosystems?...
I count myself as a matrix fanboy...so with that bias disclosure out of the way...i wonder if Microsoft were to go all in on matrix, how that would be for the matrix, Teams, etc. ecosystems? Historically i am not a fan of MS...but i have to say that under Nadella, they are a much better company (not ideal just yet, just better than they used to be). Would MS offering matrix hosting - as just one example - as part of their enterprise Office offering be an overall good thing? I think yes... but then, would that kill the business opportunities for the very good folks over at Element.io, etc....Or, would that actually be good thing and legitimize the Element folks for even more adoption of matrix by large enterprises, and further enhance the matrix ecosystem?
Now, to the point about the perceived lack of a decent desktop client for matrix, i guess to each their own. I actually like Element's desktop app. Yes, i know, i know it is an electron app, and such...but i still consider it early days still for UI/UX around the matrix protocol.
I barely use Discord, but under the current leadership, MS's acquisitions have been pretty good. Hopefully they'll merge a lot of Discord stuff into Teams, since most things with Discord do work...
I barely use Discord, but under the current leadership, MS's acquisitions have been pretty good. Hopefully they'll merge a lot of Discord stuff into Teams, since most things with Discord do work well.
As much as I am 100% for IRC, it'd be nice to see Github get an optional chat caked in, too. In a perfect world, they'd have an IRC protocol so we don't have to use fancy ways to get it working... but while we're at it, I'd like a pony.
I'm personally a bit concerned that they'll do a little too much integration with Teams, merging the two products and hence bringing Teams' whole host of issues into Discord. Have to say my...
I'm personally a bit concerned that they'll do a little too much integration with Teams, merging the two products and hence bringing Teams' whole host of issues into Discord.
Have to say my biggest gripe with Teams is the lack of customization (why the hell is everyone in my org listed as Last, F. in a chat app?!) so maybe bringing some Discord into Teams will help with that.
The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday evening that doesn't really seem to contain any new details, but sounds a lot more confident than the Bloomberg one does: Microsoft Is in...
The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday evening that doesn't really seem to contain any new details, but sounds a lot more confident than the Bloomberg one does: Microsoft Is in Exclusive Talks to Acquire Discord
Microsoft Corp. is in advanced talks to acquire messaging platform Discord Inc. for $10 billion or more, according to people familiar with the matter, as the software giant seeks to deepen its consumer offerings.
Microsoft and Discord are in exclusive talks and could complete a deal next month, assuming the negotiations don’t fall apart, the people said.
I'm not really sure what to think of that, maybe this will actually happen?
It doesn't even say this is anywhere near final yet. I'm not too surprised though, since Discord has said they've never actually made money. It'll really suck in 5 years when they decide to...
It doesn't even say this is anywhere near final yet. I'm not too surprised though, since Discord has said they've never actually made money. It'll really suck in 5 years when they decide to require an MS account, but until then this isn't a huge deal even if it does go through.
I hope this means we'll finally have the ability to easily switch between Teams accounts. Hell is being a member of multiple organizations. I usually end up keeping my phone or iPad signed into...
I hope this means we'll finally have the ability to easily switch between Teams accounts. Hell is being a member of multiple organizations. I usually end up keeping my phone or iPad signed into one account and my desktop into another so that I can be sure I get notifications. If anyone knows of a better way, please let me know. I've tried signing into Teams in a browser, but for some reason notifications will just die occasionally and when I switch back to the page I see that I've missed a bunch of messages.
I really don't agree with this sentiment. I do not see any mass exodus should a deal pull through between the companies. Microsoft has been purchasing relatively well-known brands and after their...
I'm glad to see something that may well mean a mass exodus from Discord, I just worry that we won't be ready with something better in time.
I really don't agree with this sentiment. I do not see any mass exodus should a deal pull through between the companies. Microsoft has been purchasing relatively well-known brands and after their fiasco with Skype (e.g. centralization, UI/UX changes, business direction change), they've been pretty hands-off approach for existing brands they've acquired, like GitHub.
You haven't mentioned this, but another concern that public commentary has brought up is privacy. Discord was never meant for secure communication either, so any concerns for privacy or security concerns from that end would seem not sound - relatively. Microsoft does have a track record with surveillance programs, but then again, it isn't end-to-end encrypted!
Indeed. Microsoft buying Discord is one of the better outcomes possible imo. There are much much worse buyers i can think of that are in the cards: Google, Slack (Salesforce), Epic, Oracle,...
Indeed. Microsoft buying Discord is one of the better outcomes possible imo. There are much much worse buyers i can think of that are in the cards: Google, Slack (Salesforce), Epic, Oracle, Facebook...
I'd trust MS with Discord far more than any of them. They're also like you said pretty hands off lately and have a good track record with their gaming related stuff.
One thing that's worth noting is that the Skype purchase was under Ballmer who had a very, very different philosophy of what Microsoft should be and what the technology landscape should look like....
One thing that's worth noting is that the Skype purchase was under Ballmer who had a very, very different philosophy of what Microsoft should be and what the technology landscape should look like.
I have to admit that, while once a Microsoft hater, Nadella has done a far better job of moving the Microsoft into a business that actually embraces (and doesn't follow through to the "extinguish" phase) Open Source and is trying to do some real good to the technology world (and not inherently tying it to their ecosystem).
If anything, a Microsoft acquisition of Discord could mean a better Teams product and more security and privacy in Discord itself because it's then not looking to sell data to monetize.
I don't use Discord a lot, but I do use it, and I use Teams daily for work. They're both Electron apps, which gives them both an inherent slow, laggy and just generally janky feel that I find...
I don't use Discord a lot, but I do use it, and I use Teams daily for work. They're both Electron apps, which gives them both an inherent slow, laggy and just generally janky feel that I find frustrating, but other than that I don't notice any significant difference between them. What kind of bugs do you see in Teams that rise to the level of nightmarish?
I am probably biased, having used Teams almost exclusively for audio/video conferences, and Discord for both messaging and audio/video calls. But Teams cutting out your audio in the middle of an...
I am probably biased, having used Teams almost exclusively for audio/video conferences, and Discord for both messaging and audio/video calls. But Teams cutting out your audio in the middle of an important presentation is pretty much one of the worst things to happen from a single bug. I've never run into that with Discord or Zoom.
and the target audience for Discord, gamers, probably already uses Windows or an Xbox, both Microsoft, so I don't see why this would change anything
I really don't agree with this sentiment. I do not see any mass exodus should a deal pull through between the companies. Microsoft has been purchasing relatively well-known brands and after their fiasco with Skype (e.g. centralization, UI/UX changes, business direction change), they've been pretty hands-off approach for existing brands they've acquired, like GitHub.
and the target audience for Discord, gamers, probably already uses Windows or an Xbox, both Microsoft, so I don't see why this would change anything
I've personally been waiting for a mass exodus from reddit for a good 2 years minimum at this point. And there have been several chances (including a very recent one). I doubt much will change...
I've personally been waiting for a mass exodus from reddit for a good 2 years minimum at this point. And there have been several chances (including a very recent one). I doubt much will change unless they actively paywall the ability to use basic site features like commenting.
Community migration is extremely hard, however. Short of the actual community going down for weeks, habits are hard to change. Many may not even bother finding a new community in some cases; individuals will just move on to another kind of accessible habit altogether. So aquisitions like this for a user base have low risk of this happening.
I would just like to say that I sort of predicted this
Missed the age and the amount, which would be correlated, so at least in my own biased opinion I think I was on the right track, although I thought that Discord would keep on trucking as a private company for longer. But perhaps Microsoft just offered a check too big for them to reasonably refuse; it certainly seems like MSFT is going hard into the gaming sector with the recent purchase of Zenimax.
Although I generally agree with the notion that Microsoft can make major acquisitions mostly without ruining them, I’ll also point to what happened to Minecraft. It’s not ruined or even changed much, but after a long while they decided to require a Microsoft login.
It remains to be seen how that’s going to affect the game. Personally, I don’t care too much about the Microsoft login, as long as it doesn’t bring microtransactions to JE along with it.
It’s always struck me as weird how they’ve continued developing two versions of the game in parallel, especially considering how Java Edition has to be way less profitable than Bedrock. It would obviously piss off a huge portion of the playerbase if they dropped Java Edition, but it’s not like they were making additional money from those players anyway…
Java Edition still generates most of their free marketing
That's was what my mind went straight to. All of the youtubers use java and that's a huge amount of free "adverts". Let alone the popular posts of huge builds and such.
This is not the point.
Microsoft used to sell softwares. In the last few years, it has been transitioning to a quite different trade: monetizing privacy. They're getting very good at it too: look at how the stock evolved since Nadella took over.
I can see this concern being valid is most other spheres, but how is privacy compromised by using a Microsoft account for Minecraft? What personal data is Minecraft collecting that Microsoft might find useful?
I frequently hear horror stories from people who have experienced an account hijacking because of Mojang's incredibly lackluster accounts system so I'm not really sure what the downside is here, as this will bring 2FA and significantly better recovery to MC.
Irrespective of what they do with it, I think these companies are just too big and shouldn't be allowed to buy everything like this.
It's a different strategy than what antitrust laws were built around. They aren't acquiring everything in 1 industry, they are setting a respectable stake in a few key industries and then dipping toes into adjacent ones.
I'm ambivalent on if this is an allowable practice. There's some danger in breadth over depth, but at the same time, a small stake (even for a trillion dollar coporation) leaves plenty of room for a dedicated competitor to overwhelm.
I've seen a lot of people make the comparison to the Skype acquisition, which is both a more direct comparison but also much further in the past, so less direct in some ways.
I'm confused why everyone in this thread is discussing this like the merger is a foregone conclusion? The article clearly states that this is unofficial, and that the same anonymous sources state that they're more likely to go public rather than get bought. Not to mention their previous talks with large companies that didn't lead to anything.
Most people probably didn't read anything except the title, and Bloomberg being a paywalled site doesn't help with that. It's even worse because most titles are written to be more definite/sensationalized than the actual story. "Discord has spoken to Microsoft about a potential acquisition, but a deal is unlikely" just doesn't get the same level of attention.
Personally, I'd like to edit titles even more than we already do to try to make them more accurate, but it's a difficult thing to do (and often gets people upset if they don't agree with the edit).
Very interesting. I'd expect them to sell out, there's no way they're worth more than $10 billion public - and Microsoft probably has an pretty big incentive to get Discord's engineers on board what with the current buggy mess that is Microsoft Teams.
Too bad the Matrix protocol doesn't have a decent desktop client yet (or room groups, or custom emojis, or...).
Microsoft has access to all the resources they need. If they actually cared, they would have fixed Teams long ago. Teams exists so MS can say "don't bother getting Slack (or worse, consider ditching Office in favor of GSuite+Slack), we've got our own." People who are used to Skype for Business and haven't really used Slack much try Teams and are blown away by how much better it is than what they've been putting up with for years, despite all the problems of Teams.
And then the people in charge of purchasing decisions decide "this Teams thing is pretty cool, why do we need Slack?" And then they further integrate into the MS ecosystem since Teams will play nicely with Sharepoint and O365, and then Azure becomes the next logical step.
I'm just waiting for people to realize that records aren't being recorded properly because of the way Teams is built, especially when it comes to governments where those records have to be findable, exportable, and searchable by law. That's going to cause some issues.
But first it's going to take journalists to catch up with how they file information requests because I don't think most of them realize they have to specify beyond emails now.
I count myself as a matrix fanboy...so with that bias disclosure out of the way...i wonder if Microsoft were to go all in on matrix, how that would be for the matrix, Teams, etc. ecosystems? Historically i am not a fan of MS...but i have to say that under Nadella, they are a much better company (not ideal just yet, just better than they used to be). Would MS offering matrix hosting - as just one example - as part of their enterprise Office offering be an overall good thing? I think yes... but then, would that kill the business opportunities for the very good folks over at Element.io, etc....Or, would that actually be good thing and legitimize the Element folks for even more adoption of matrix by large enterprises, and further enhance the matrix ecosystem?
Now, to the point about the perceived lack of a decent desktop client for matrix, i guess to each their own. I actually like Element's desktop app. Yes, i know, i know it is an electron app, and such...but i still consider it early days still for UI/UX around the matrix protocol.
I barely use Discord, but under the current leadership, MS's acquisitions have been pretty good. Hopefully they'll merge a lot of Discord stuff into Teams, since most things with Discord do work well.
As much as I am 100% for IRC, it'd be nice to see Github get an optional chat caked in, too. In a perfect world, they'd have an IRC protocol so we don't have to use fancy ways to get it working... but while we're at it, I'd like a pony.
I'm personally a bit concerned that they'll do a little too much integration with Teams, merging the two products and hence bringing Teams' whole host of issues into Discord.
Have to say my biggest gripe with Teams is the lack of customization (why the hell is everyone in my org listed as
Last, F.in a chat app?!) so maybe bringing some Discord into Teams will help with that.Not happy. Can't say I'm surprised. At least it's not Facebook.
There's all my takes on this, ugh.
Microsoft has been trying for years to become more like Fakebook, or more like Google.
The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday evening that doesn't really seem to contain any new details, but sounds a lot more confident than the Bloomberg one does: Microsoft Is in Exclusive Talks to Acquire Discord
I'm not really sure what to think of that, maybe this will actually happen?
It doesn't even say this is anywhere near final yet. I'm not too surprised though, since Discord has said they've never actually made money. It'll really suck in 5 years when they decide to require an MS account, but until then this isn't a huge deal even if it does go through.
I hope this means we'll finally have the ability to easily switch between Teams accounts. Hell is being a member of multiple organizations. I usually end up keeping my phone or iPad signed into one account and my desktop into another so that I can be sure I get notifications. If anyone knows of a better way, please let me know. I've tried signing into Teams in a browser, but for some reason notifications will just die occasionally and when I switch back to the page I see that I've missed a bunch of messages.
I really don't agree with this sentiment. I do not see any mass exodus should a deal pull through between the companies. Microsoft has been purchasing relatively well-known brands and after their fiasco with Skype (e.g. centralization, UI/UX changes, business direction change), they've been pretty hands-off approach for existing brands they've acquired, like GitHub.
You haven't mentioned this, but another concern that public commentary has brought up is privacy. Discord was never meant for secure communication either, so any concerns for privacy or security concerns from that end would seem not sound - relatively. Microsoft does have a track record with surveillance programs, but then again, it isn't end-to-end encrypted!
Indeed. Microsoft buying Discord is one of the better outcomes possible imo. There are much much worse buyers i can think of that are in the cards: Google, Slack (Salesforce), Epic, Oracle, Facebook...
I'd trust MS with Discord far more than any of them. They're also like you said pretty hands off lately and have a good track record with their gaming related stuff.
One thing that's worth noting is that the Skype purchase was under Ballmer who had a very, very different philosophy of what Microsoft should be and what the technology landscape should look like.
I have to admit that, while once a Microsoft hater, Nadella has done a far better job of moving the Microsoft into a business that actually embraces (and doesn't follow through to the "extinguish" phase) Open Source and is trying to do some real good to the technology world (and not inherently tying it to their ecosystem).
If anything, a Microsoft acquisition of Discord could mean a better Teams product and more security and privacy in Discord itself because it's then not looking to sell data to monetize.
Teams has always been a buggy nightmare, in my experience, while Discord has been rock solid - especially with voice and video calls.
I don't use Discord a lot, but I do use it, and I use Teams daily for work. They're both Electron apps, which gives them both an inherent slow, laggy and just generally janky feel that I find frustrating, but other than that I don't notice any significant difference between them. What kind of bugs do you see in Teams that rise to the level of nightmarish?
I am probably biased, having used Teams almost exclusively for audio/video conferences, and Discord for both messaging and audio/video calls. But Teams cutting out your audio in the middle of an important presentation is pretty much one of the worst things to happen from a single bug. I've never run into that with Discord or Zoom.
and the target audience for Discord, gamers, probably already uses Windows or an Xbox, both Microsoft, so I don't see why this would change anything
I've personally been waiting for a mass exodus from reddit for a good 2 years minimum at this point. And there have been several chances (including a very recent one). I doubt much will change unless they actively paywall the ability to use basic site features like commenting.
Community migration is extremely hard, however. Short of the actual community going down for weeks, habits are hard to change. Many may not even bother finding a new community in some cases; individuals will just move on to another kind of accessible habit altogether. So aquisitions like this for a user base have low risk of this happening.
If this is the same article I read doesn’t it say they’re more likely to go public than sell to anyone?