Sentifi has captured a rumor that Microsoft approached the container technology startup Docker with an acquisition offer of $4 billion.
The container technology is gaining lots of traction in the tech industry. In a nutshell, containers are the solution to the problem of getting software to run reliably when moved from one computing environment to another. Docker is one of the hottest startups in this space. The three-year-old, 250-employee company has raised $180 million so far, with valuation calculated at above $1 billion.
The space is relatively new and free from consolidation, hence Microsoft’s approach of Docker. Microsoft made its move during the recent DockerCon 2016 in Seattle, where behind-the-scenes chatter revealed the company had made an offer of as much as $4 billion to Docker. Unfortunately, a deal wasn’t reached because the two companies failed to agree on a price.
Microsoft is definitely one of the most talked-about tech companies as of late thanks to its record $26 billion takeover of LinkedIn. The company is pursuing a path to growth through acquisitions, and with close to $100 billion in cash in its pocket, it is looking for more M&A.
Docker would be a strategic addition to Microsoft as it is looking to add container capabilities to the Azure cloud platform, which directly competes with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. Both competitors built and are using their own container management technology. Google has Kubernetes, and Amazon owns the EC2 Container Service. It’s Microsoft that is playing catchup.
Even though Microsoft already has settled in a few partnership deals with container company, having an in-house container service would give it much more freedom. For the time being, Docker’s technology is present in the Windows Server platform as Microsoft is trying to compete with Linux that are more commonly used with Docker and other container services.
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