Brief: Amazon said to be eyeing Slack for takeover

Photo credit: L’orem.

The news:

• Office chat app Slack has reportedly received inquiries about a potential takeover from several companies, particularly Amazon.
• A deal could give Slack a valuation of at least US$9 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The company is now valued at US$3 billion, after a US$200 million round in 2016. The parties declined to comment on the report.

Why it matters:

• A potential takeover will mark some sort of consolidation in the space, which has seen heated rivalry among tech giants this year.
• In February, Amazon itself announced its Chime service, which targets enterprises with its video-conferencing and chat features. Then in March, Google unveiled its new Hangouts app, adding threaded conversations and virtual rooms, while Microsoft introduced its chat-based workspace, Office 365. All these are challenging Slack, which debuted an enterprise version of its software that allows tens of thousands of employees to collaborate across teams.

Source: Bloomberg.