According to a TechCrunch report, Microsoft considered buying Slack for $8 billion but decided to build up Skype with more services and features instead. Slack will soon venture into Microsoft enterprise territory later this year; earlier this week, Slack announced it would be testing voice and video services.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella didn’t think acquiring Slack was a wise decision, which is why the idea was scrapped. Gates was the one that thought it would be better to put Microsoft’s focus more on Skype to make it a better choice for enterprise customers.
Currently, Slack has 2.3 million active daily users, with 675,000 paid subscribers. Microsoft already has acquired other companies like Yammer, SharePoint, Lync, and Skype to build a competitor to Slack and doesn’t need to buy Slack to do so.
Plus, Microsoft has already partnered with Slack and Skype integration, so a partnership might be more beneficial to both companies than Microsoft absorbing Slack. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
