Microsoft approached Pinterest in recent months in an attempt to acquire the American image sharing and social media service, as reported by the Financial Times.
Pinterest, which is a $51 billion social media company, is popular among hobbyists, who enjoy posting about home decor, food, wedding collages, art and other inspiring content. With Pinterest's market value increasing by more than 600 percent during the pandemic, this deal would have been Microsoft's biggest acquisition to date.
It is important to note that Microsoft's interest in Pinterest might have been fuelled by the software giant's current acquisition strategy, which is aimed at targeting active online communities that could run on top of its cloud computing platform. Pinterest, however, currently relies on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its main infrastructure provider.
However, the talks between Microsoft and Pinterest are currently not active, according to reports by The Verge. This might be because of Pinterest's desire to remain as an independent company.
Last year, Microsoft also revealed its interests in acquiring Tiktok, a prominent Chinese video app. Although, the attempt was unsuccessful, it indicated Microsoft's efforts to convince businesses to go with Azure cloud platform rather than AWS.