Europe’s largest tech investment company, Prosus said it acquired US-based Stack OverFlow for $1.8 billion — a move which diversifies its holdings away from Chinese markets.
Stack OverFlow operates a free site for software engineers to share questions and answers, and it has an enterprise product, Stack OverFlow for Business, that helps do the same within large organizations and across different topics.
Prosus holds about $200 bn in value of Tencent shares — the Chinese internet giant. In April it sold a fraction of its Tencent shares, raising nearly $15 bn.
The move reduces its share of Tencent from 30.9% to 29.9%. And it was the second-largest ever block trade. It indicates that Prosus sees better long term investment opportunities outside of China and Tencent’s future prospects.
Stack Overflow is an iconic site for programmers and the sale created 61 millionaires, according to a Tweet from co-founder Jeff Atwood.
The acquisition of Stack OverFlow strengthens Prosus’ investments in educational tech companies and it also reflects a changing landscape as large enterprises change to support work-from-home policies and distributed teams across different geographies.
Prosus manages many different investment in tech companies and in investment groups around the world, for example Movile, in Brazil and the iFood delivery giant.
Please see my interview with Stack OverFlow’s Chief Technology Officer: Stack Overflow reports strong growth from COVID-19 workplace changes