[mmaunder]

Really glad MS didn't buy Slack. I think they're going to be an amazing big business that will generate a lot of cash and opportunity.

Most acquisitions by big businesses, either early or late stage, destroy value. Big biz thinks they can innovate by buying. Smaller biz wants an exit. The innovation exits on acquisition and after earn-out. Both suffer and we all lose what could have been the next Google.

[whatever_dude]

Same. Being sold to a big company would (probably) be death to Slack as a product. I like it the way it is now - lean, small, simple. Integration is possible but only if you install specific extensions. Let it be its own niche, nothing wrong with it. Not every app needs to conquer the world.

And as much as I like the "new" Microsoft, I certainly would hate to see Outlook, Office, and other corporatey scrap spilling into Slack.

[k__]

I think it depends on the level where the business acts on.

If you have a real low level technology, an acquisition can be a good thing, because the big corp could integrate it some of their products and increase the spreading.

But yeah, if we look at Skype and WhatsApp, it's probably good that Slack didn't get acquired.

[rokhayakebe]

Weren't both of these somewhat successful acquisitions? i.e. Would Skype have been better today without the acquisions, and did WhatsApp suffer product-wise as a result of being part of FB?

[wodenokoto]

I think Skype suffered from their first acquisition and Microsoft never got it back on to its original trajectory when they bought it.

Skype still has a lot of consumer good will and a strong brand. Amongst my peers online video calling is called Skype notater what platform we use.