Amazon considering acquisition of Slack: report

Amazon is reportedly considering purchasing the messaging startup Slack in what would be the largest deal ever made by the Seattle-based company.

Slack may be valued at $9 billion, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The report clarified that a deal has not yet been definitively agreed on and could still fall through.

Representatives from both companies did not provide comment.

{mosads}The e-commerce giant’s previous largest deal was its 2014 acquisition of Twitch Interactive, a video platform and gaming community for $970 million.

Acquiring Slack could give Amazon a leg up in messaging battle between companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft that have their own messaging services. Amazon already competes with Microsoft’s video messaging application Skype with Amazon Chime, a video and audio conferencing product by Amazon Web Services.

Microsoft had reportedly previously considered acquiring Slack, but never seriously enough to consult with CEO Satya Nadella or the firm’s board.

Slack has grown substantially since its founding in 2013. Many media firms and other companies have adopted it for their internal communications. The company has 5 million active users, 1.5 million of which pay for the premium version of the messaging app.