• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 10, 2021

Microsoft reportedly approached Pinterest in recent months with a $51 billion offer to acquire the company. 

Pinterest, a social media site where millions of users post images of things they are interested in or might want to buy, would likely become one of the most important data sources for Microsoft advertisers.

This data source would help support Microsoft Ads on Bing and across other properties such as LinkedIn, which the company acquired for $26 billion in 2016.

A purchase of Pinterest, whose market value rose more than 600% during the coronavirus pandemic, would amount to Microsoft’s largest deal. It also would support many of the features that Pinterest recently introduced or has on its product roadmap.

One person briefed on the talks told the Financial Times that Microsoft is not actively pursuing the purchase.

Microsoft has made its share of acquisitions. It acquired GitHub, a code repository and network for software developers, and Minecraft, an online game that last year surpassed 131 million users. It also acquired private gaming company ZeniMax for $7.5 billion.

Lately, as the Financial Times points out, Microsoft has set its sights on social media. Last year, Microsoft showed interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of TikTok, but failed after rival Oracle moved in to become the frontrunner in the talks. 

Last week, Pinterest reported that Q4 revenue grew 76% year over year to $706 million, whereas total year revenue grew 48% year over year to $1,693 million. Global Monthly Active Users (MAUs) grew 37% year over year to 459 million.

In January, Pinterest announced plans to expand its support for augmented reality and introduced more ways to try on makeup from a phone. The augmented reality feature called AR Try on for eyeshadow caught the attention of Lancome, YSL, Urban Decay, and NYX Cosmetics. All participated in the launch.