Rumours of a potential Google/Youtube buyout of Twitch were circling, with the figure settling at somewhere around $1 billion, but according to a Verge report there were plenty of other potential suitors, including Microsoft.
The Verge is claiming that one source claimed that Microsoft had made a serious bid for Twitch, but felt as though YouTube and Google were a safer bet in terms of taking the Twitch service mainstream. The source claimed that had Microsoft made a similar bid, it most likely would have been rejected.
It’s an interesting one. Some sort of exclusivity with the Xbox One would most likely have been a lynchpin of any deal with Microsoft and Twitch is already well established on the PS4. That would have been a bit of a stumbling block to begin with.
Twitch chooses Google over Microsoft amid multiple buyout offers [The Verge}
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4 responses to “Report: Microsoft (And Others) Also Tried To Buy Twitch”
Luckily they turn down Microsoft’s offer. It would be full of region locking and it will be removed from PS4 and lock to Microsoft platform only.
I’m actually surprised Sony didn’t make a bid (they may have, no one’s reported on it though). They seem to be gearing up for capturing some of the more prevalent corners of the gaming market with things like the Gaikai purchase and Morpheus so Twitch would have made sense given they have it integrated already. It would also give them leverage over MS.
Alternatively, they might have handled it like the Skype acquisition: a case where Microsoft could easily have produced their own version of the software (e.g. NetMeeting, Messenger, etc), but was instead interested in the customer base. They haven’t cut off support for Skype on non-Microsoft platforms post-acquisition, because that would destroy the value of the purchase.
If they wanted to buy Twitch for similar reasons, then there would be no reason to exclude competitors.
How come no-one contacted me personally to ask what I thought of the situation?