Microsoft seems to have approached Pinterest recently to discuss a possible acquisition. These talks have since been halted.
The rumour originates from sources of the Financial Times. If the takeover were to go ahead, it would probably be Microsoft’s biggest takeover ever, as Pinterest has a market value of over 50 billion dollars (over 40 billion euros).
It is not clear exactly what Microsoft had in mind for Pinterest. Pinterest specialises in images of projects by hobbyists, such as home decoration, food and clothing. The platform currently runs on AWS servers. In the event of a takeover, it would most likely be transferred to Azure. Both companies did not respond to further questions from the Financial Times.
Acquisitions of social platforms
Microsoft has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring social media platforms. In 2011, the company acquired Skype for 8.5 billion dollars, which the company has clearly made part of its product line-up on and integrated further with Teams. In 2016, the company added LinkedIn to its repertoire, for a sum of 26.2 billion dollars. Microsoft has yet to make major Microsoft-centric changes to LinkedIn.
When Trump forced ByteDance to sell Chinese social platform TikTok to a US party in 2020, Microsoft was one of the companies that emerged as a possible buyer. However, this plan has stalled, and it currently seems more likely that Oracle will go for a takeover. However, progress on that acquisition has been put on a backburner.
Pinterest was founded in 2009 as a platform where hobbyists could share their work. Other users can then save these works for later use as inspiration for their own crafts. Businesses that make artistic products can use Pinterest to advertise their products. By 2020, the website had more than 400 million active users.
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