Amazon eyes potential takeover of workplace chatroom startup Slack

SlackA number of technology companies have reportedly made inquiries with Slack Technologies, the startup behind the Slack workplace messaging and collaboration software, about a possible takeover bid. One of the companies said to be interested is Amazon.

According to Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the situation, the deal could give Slack a valuation of at least $9bn. However, there is no certainty that a deal will be struck and talks could break down.

In October 2016, Slack passed 4m daily active users. It followed that with the introduced of its long-awaited big business edition called ‘Slack for Enterprise’ earlier this year. This more-or-less coincided with Microsoft’s launch of Teams, which rivals Slack as part of Microsoft’s Office 360 suite.

Microsoft isn’t the only tech company that’s looked to board the workplace app train. Toward the end of last year, Facebook brought its ‘Facebook at Work’ out of beta, opening it up to organisations under the name of ‘Workplace’. Facebook would build on its collaborative product a few months later, putting it directly in competition with Slack.

In addition, Japanese instant messaging platform Line launched ‘Line Works’ in February this year. And, a month later, Google revamped Hangouts – cutting it into two entities called ‘Hangouts Chat’ and ‘Hangouts Meet’, the first of those a clear attempt to battle in the workplace communication sector.