Stack Overflow has sold to Prosus for 1.8 billion USD. Prosus is one of the world’s leading technology investors with stakes in companies like Tencent, Brainly, BYJU’s, Codecademy, Udemy, and more.

Stack Overflow is one of the most heavily engaged sites in the world, Since 2008. Almost every programmer, system admin, or data scientist depends on this site. I like one of their slogans:

Every developer has a tab open to Stack Overflow

Now, after this huge acquisition, many developers are wondering if it will be the same? Can we still use it for free, or will it change in the near future?

Let’s find out.

What Are They Saying?

Although Prosus has bought the whole company, the management team will remain the same. The co-founder of Stack Overflow, Joel Spolsky, said that it would continue to operate independently, with the exact same team, the same plan, and the same business practices.

The CEO of Stack Overflow, Mr. Chandrasekar also said, “How you use our site and our products will not change in the coming weeks or months, just as our company’s goals and strategic priorities will remain the same.”

So, we can understand that from their perspective, for the time being, it will be the same.

Prosus’s Plan for StackOverflow

Why they acquired it

Prosus is one of the leading investors in the world in the Edtech sector. They have made so much impact by investing all around the world. They improve the lives of around one-fifth of the total world population!

Its mission is to enrich and empower communities. They have already invested in BYJU, Codecademy, Skillsoft, and Udemy.

On the other side, StackOverflow is the largest Question-answer site for developers. They have more than 100 million+ monthly visitors, and 5000+ teams instance active every day. There is a new question asked on Stack Overflow every 14 seconds.

So, Prosus is the perfect company to acquire stack overflow. They want to create workplace learning opportunities all over the world.

Future possible impacts or changes

Acceleration: With the backing of a global technology powerhouse, StackOverflow can accelerate global impact tremendously. They will make the public platform more resourceful for every technologist and developer.

StackOverflow for teams: Many don’t know Stackoverflow has a SaaS product called “StackOverflow for teams” for a private collaboration and knowledge-sharing platform for companies including Microsoft, Siemens, Bloomberg, Logitech, Instacart, and more.

With this new acquisition and institutional knowledge, they will reach thousands more global enterprises.

Workplace learning giant: Prosus will reach 90% of the Fortune 100 across its corporate learning companies, including Stack Overflow, Skillsoft, Udemy, and Codecademy.

We might see cross-platform collaboration between these platforms. If this happens, developers will be benefitted even more.

More paid products/services: Stack Overflow’s biggest asset is its huge developer community. Software development is already a multi-billion dollar business. So we might see some useful SaaS for developers and teams.

StackOverflow already has some additional products/services like Talent, Advertising, or jobs platform, so we might see growth in these sectors too.

Is $1.8B Low for StackOverflow?

I personally think so. I believe StackOverflow has a huge potential. They already have built a strong community. We have seen Slack, which was founded in 2009, has been sold to Salesforce for $27.7B.

I am just mentioning Slack because the age of these two companies is almost the same, but the valuation gap is huge! One of the reasons is the revenue. Slack’s revenue is far higher than that of Stackoverflow.

Another big reason is that Slack is not limited to developers or tech companies, so their market size is bigger. Nevertheless, both have created a huge value in the industry from a different perspective.

But personally, I believe the impact made by Stackoverflow is invaluable for developers! Hopefully, after this acquisition, Stackoverflow can increase its revenue in the near future from its SaaS and other services.

Last Words

Prosus is a long-term investor and I believe they will really build a better community for developers. For the time being, StackOverflow will remain the same — a community-based, question-answer platform.

We, all developers, love StackOverflow and wish for this site to improve day-by-day. We just want to find our answers free on this site!

Share your thoughts on this new acquisition!