Video conferencing company Zoom is set to go public this week, but its future could have been a lot different, according to a new report.
Recode reported that Microsoft has persistently tried to acquire Zoom over the years, with the latest attempt coming as recently as earlier this year. However, Zoom Founder Eric Yuan repeatedly rebuffed Microsoft, per Recode, saying he wasn’t interested in selling.
Microsoft could have used Zoom to beef up one of its biggest-ever acquisitions in Skype, or kept it as a standalone product as part of its other enterprise offerings. Video conferencing is a huge part of today’s office environment, and important to the kinds of businesses Microsoft targets, so it makes sense that Microsoft would seek to strengthen its position in that area.
A recent survey of IT pros found that Skype for Business is the most popular workplace collaboration app, beating out competitors like Slack and Google Hangouts. Finishing second in that survey was Microsoft Teams, which has a major video conferencing component as well.
Zoom is a lesser known name than some of the other big tech companies going public like Uber, Airbnb and Pinterest. However, unlike some of the other IPO-bound companies, Zoom is profitable while still maintaining a rapid growth pace.