The chat platform has a new boss who is a former executive from Activision Blizzard.
Discord's CEO is retiring as the co-founder of the chat app, and Humam Sakhnini will take over. He has been working at Activision Blizzard before. Citron will remain on the Discord board and Stanislav Vishnevskiy will work as the CTO. In a statement, Citron said, "We've always been about bringing people together around games from day one. It's a mission I've given my professional life to, and I'm confident that handing the baton to Humam is the right evolution for Discord's future.".Citron's departure comes against a backdrop of Discord seeking to go public. According to a March New York Times report, the company is in talks with investors about taking it public. Sakhnini has held leadership roles at public companies before, including as president of King Digital, maker of Candy Crush and other popular mobile titles, after it was acquired by Activision Blizzard. Given the impending IPO, bringing in a seasoned executive to guide Discord toward that goal could be a smart move. Asked if the company would indeed go public, Citron didn't deny the possibility: "As you can imagine, hiring someone like Humam is a step in that direction." Not long ago, Discord held talks to be acquired by Microsoft, which would make compatibility with Xbox a no-brainer. The speculated $10 billion deal went nowhere, but both Xbox and PlayStation platforms integrated Discord.
