Microsoft confirmed to buy Skype for $8.5 billion

[Jos]

Update: Microsoft has confirmed the acquisition.

Microsoft is reported to have closed an $8.5 billion all-cash deal for the Internet voice and video calling service Skype. The Wall Street Journal says to have confirmed the news after GigaOm first reported it yesterday, and Redmond is expected to make it official in an announcement this morning. This would be the company's largest acquisition yet, ahead of the $6 billion it paid for online advertising company Aquantive in 2007.

It's been a long road for Skype, founded back in 2003, which was first acquired by eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion in what's considered a failed experiment to have buyers and sellers communicate via voice calls on the auction site. The latter gave up on Skype in 2009, selling a 70% stake to a group of technology investors. Despite their huge user base and household name in the world of communications, Skype was still on its way to becoming profitable, but with eBay and partners anxious about the delayed initial public offering they had been pushing for a sale of the company.

It remains to be seen if the next phase of Skype's life as part of Microsoft proves a better fit than its former owner. Some suggest the service could be integrated into consumer products such as the Xbox 360 and Kinect, or into Microsoft's flagship Office suite and other enterprise offerings to compete against Cisco and Google. However, most agree that the biggest reason for Microsoft to buy Skype is Windows Phone 7.

The software giant would benefit from a competitive alternative against Google Talk with video and voice chat on Android as well as Apple's FaceTime. It also gives them a chance of working with carriers as they transition to LTE-based networks and are finally more open to routing their voice traffic through applications like Skype.

As reported earlier Google and Facebook had also shown interest in either partnering with Skype or buying the company. Given that the former already has a voice service in place it would seem that Facebook is the sore loser in this battle, but it might actually reap some benefits without having to plunk down the cash. After all, Microsoft is an investor in Facebook, and the social network already has a previous arrangement with Skype on which it can build upon.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/43718-microsoft-confirmed-to-buy-skype-for-85-billion.html

 

[Guest]

What the **** ?!! No Skype for Linux anymore xD

 

[Guest]

Wish it was Facebook buying it...they could of done some cool things...Microsoft will just kill it. I mean Microsoft has some cool things but when it comes to their live products and email they suck.

 

[ET3D]

Yes, being bought by Microsoft can be a death warrant to a piece of software. One of my favourite 3D modellers, trueSpace, died that way. We'll have to wait and see what happens with Skype. One of the great things about Skype is indeed its cross platform support, and if that dies then I'm sure it will lose some popularity.

 

[Arris]

Wonder if this will go the way of Groove Networks...

 

[Jibberish18]

8.5 Billion.....IN CASH!

 

[TorturedChaos]

I really hope they don't screw it up. I know a lot of people that rely on it to talk cross country and to other countries. I use it to keep in touch with friends on the other side of the US. Would be very sad to see M$ screw that up.

 

[CamaroMullet]

Yeah, hopefully this works out well. Who knows?? It might be a good thing, maybe some tight integration into Win8? But probably, I'm just being optimistic today.....

 

[lawfer]

I seriously don't know what to think or feel about this.

 

[Guest]

Just another good free app sucked up by the Borg that will either a) turn into a "premium" app with minimal/outsourced support, perhaps with a barely functional free version with no support or, b) be killed outright. Microsoft's miserable support record with their companies and software offerings has already carved the writing on the wall.

 

[gwailo247]

Guest said:
Wish it was Facebook buying it...they could of done some cool things...Microsoft will just kill it. I mean Microsoft has some cool things but when it comes to their live products and email they suck.

So they can sell the voice prints of your Skype conversations to a third party? I'll pass.

 

[lawfer]

Microsoft's miserable support record with their companies and software offerings has already carved the writing on the wall.

I'm no M$ fan, but please don't be a hater. What SOFTWARE has received miserable support from Microsoft?

 

[SSaywell]

I don't get what everyone's hate is with MS, just because it's MS it will be crap although if it were Apple buying Skype then it would be amazing. Lets look at this; iTunes for Mac GOOD, iTunes for Windows in comparision Suck . Office for Windows GOOD, office for Mac GOOD. Point proven

 

[captainawesome]

this is NOT good. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Microsoft. I even worked for them for a couple of years. But I agree with Guest - their Live products are crap. And I'm sorry but I don't see them releasing any more skype for lin - which means we going to have to make abomination software to get it working like Windows Live currently does.

 

[Guest]

hmmm...let's see...miserable support:

MSN groups (remember those? Killed.)
MSN chat (ditto)
Hotmail (support is laughable)
Windows Live Spaces (touted as a replacement for MSN groups, support dropped followed by loss of customers, subsequently foisted off to WordPress)
Windows Live One Care ("premium" security software left subscribers twisting in the wind when support dropped).
Microsoft medialess policy (remember when we got operating system disks with our computer purchases? Now we have a "recovery partition" that is pretty much useless if Windows won't load or recovery media that won't work if a hardware change is instituted.)
Windows uninstaller utility (Good and useful app, yanked when it was found to be incompatible with the latest MSOffice. Wouldn't it have made more sense to keep it in circulation with the caveat not to use it with that program?)

I could go on, but you get the point?

 

[yRaz]

Stop worrying. Once MS buys it someone else will popup and we will all rush to them. Look at open office VS libre office. I don't really have a problem with this, I'm just going to take my business else were as soon as someone new arrives.

 

[Guest]

Ha! Ha!

Microsoft fell for it hook, line and sinker. Facebook says to Google, "Hey I bet you $1 that we can get Microsoft to blow about 8 Billion dollars. Google says "No way!" Then Facebook says "Lets talk publicly about partnering with Skype." So, now Google owes Facebook $1.

 

[Guest]

Office for Mac BLOWS.

 

[ET3D]

SSaywell said:
I don't get what everyone's hate is with MS, just because it's MS it will be crap although if it were Apple buying Skype then it would be amazing. Lets look at this; iTunes for Mac GOOD, iTunes for Windows in comparision Suck . Office for Windows GOOD, office for Mac GOOD. Point proven

Nobody (except you) said anything about Apple. I'm sure if Apple bought Skype everyone would have said it sucks, too.

Every change causes worries. It's always easy to think about the bad things that could happen. For example if Facebook bought Skype I can just imagine all my conversations being shared by default with the world.

 

[SSaywell]

ET3D said:

SSaywell said:
I don't get what everyone's hate is with MS, just because it's MS it will be crap although if it were Apple buying Skype then it would be amazing. Lets look at this; iTunes for Mac GOOD, iTunes for Windows in comparision Suck . Office for Windows GOOD, office for Mac GOOD. Point proven

Nobody (except you) said anything about Apple. I'm sure if Apple bought Skype everyone would have said it sucks, too.

Every change causes worries. It's always easy to think about the bad things that could happen. For example if Facebook bought Skype I can just imagine all my conversations being shared by default with the world.

The point I was making is that people where saying it was bad because MS had brought it, not because it had been sold, and on other sites they were saying how bad that is for the tech world etc, I just point out that people hate MS because it's MS and for no other reason. The reason I commented here is cus this is the only site that I'm signed upto.

 

[lawfer]

Guest said:
hmmm...let's see...miserable support:

MSN groups (remember those? Killed.)
MSN chat (ditto)
Hotmail (support is laughable)
Windows Live Spaces (touted as a replacement for MSN groups, support dropped followed by loss of customers, subsequently foisted off to WordPress)
Windows Live One Care ("premium" security software left subscribers twisting in the wind when support dropped).
Microsoft medialess policy (remember when we got operating system disks with our computer purchases? Now we have a "recovery partition" that is pretty much useless if Windows won't load or recovery media that won't work if a hardware change is instituted.)
Windows uninstaller utility (Good and useful app, yanked when it was found to be incompatible with the latest MSOffice. Wouldn't it have made more sense to keep it in circulation with the caveat not to use it with that program?)

I could go on, but you get the point?

No. As neutral as I am about M$, I'll give you a few history lessons.

MSN Groups was not "killed." It was simply, let's say, modernized. And by doing so, M$ integrated it with its set of Windows Live Services.

MSN chat had the same fate. Instead of MSN chat, its now a feature of Windows Live Messenger. Why have an IRC client, when you can have a full-featured instant messaging application?

Hotmail. How in the world is the support of Hotmail laughable? What else do you need other than read/send e-mails? Not to mention it is currently the largest e-mail provider. Gmail is much much better, but to be honest, if something were to happen to my Gmail, I could live with Hotmail pretty comfortably. You could say the same with Yahoo. They are all good (free) services. Oh, and Hotmail received a major update just like 8 months ago...

Windows Live One Care was, again, renovated. Ever heard of Microsoft Security Essentials?? Let's move on.

"Microsoft medialess policy" Lol, what are you talking about? M$ has NOTHING to do with that. Blame OEMs who are being cheap. The only OEM that includes an actual copy of the OS, is Asus, to my knowledge. And WinRE is a recovery feature that is not correlated in any way to that.

"Windows uninstaller utility" You mean "Add/Remove Programs" in Windows XP, and "Programs and Features" in Windows 7? I believe I just answered that.

Now, the only software M$ has truly killed off is Windows Live Spaces. And rationally so. Why maintain a declining service that was trying to compete with the behemoth that MySpace once was, and the coming Facebook? If its users don't want it, why keep it? That wouldn't be called support. Alternatively, you seem to have a misconception of what software support is; this is clearly noticeable on the examples you've written.

Most of those programs were created in the 90s, and had been progressively updated. However, new, greater features have been thought up, new protocols have been invented, and new services have surfaced. Competition is always great for the consumer, and this also applies to (even free) software. You clearly seem to be clinging on old software that have inevitably gone through a blooming era of technology and have been either outperformed or replaced (by either own, external programs or a combination thereof). All the programs that have (luckily) lived trough these phases, have been not "killed"; they've been renovated (according to the times), renamed, or otherwise integrated into existing and/or newly created services. You just never knew.

 

[Wagan8r]

Guest said:
Wish it was Facebook buying it...they could of done some cool things...Microsoft will just kill it. I mean Microsoft has some cool things but when it comes to their live products and email they suck.

I don't think you pay $8.5 billion to turn right around and kill it. This isn't the government we're talking about.

 

[Chazz]

The microsoft hate is hilarious. Can the fanboys please exit the building on your right.

 

[Guest]

"No more Linux Skype"

You can always use GNU telephony.

http://planet.gnu.org/gnutelephony/?p=14


Or save yourself time/money, buy a new $299 PC with Windows7 already installed. You'll have access to the same exact freeware plus more. No need to fiddle with Wine, which was defeating the purpose anyway.

 

[Guest]

lawfer, you are the one who needs a history lesson.

MSN chat was killed with the excuse being that chat generated opportunities for pedophiles to have access to minors. Truth, Microsoft was busy with Windows Live and didn't want to support it anymore. Same with groups...they simply didn't want to update the technology and cut it loose (or rather, foisted adult groups off to one company and the remaining groups off to another). Instead of fixing what they had and what was used, they launched Windows Live which, by comparison, has been a resounding failure.

Hotmail's "support" speaks for itself. It's absolutely terrible..even worse than Yahoo's. That's not just my opinion, it's the opinion of other users. There are websites devoted to the horrendous lack of support for it with lots and lots of members sharing their tales of woe.

Microsoft's medialess policy is indeed Microsoft's, and not thought up by OEMs. If you're confused, read this:
http://books.google.com/books?id=rzkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA117&lpg=RA1-PA117&dq=Microsoft+medialess+policy&source=bl&ots=6kdxunDlwO&sig=Pf_jxOOecCRHQE8yp4HlIZzpD5U&hl=en&ei=yarJTcK8LYnL0QGZpfzQBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Microsoft%20medialess%20policy&f=false

Microsoft admitted it, point blank with the excuse being "it would cut down on piracy". So, treat your customers like criminals and make it virtually impossible to use any of the myriad of fixes posted on microsoft.com that all required an operating system disk to work.

I have been online since the mid 90s and seen things come and go (go mostly). Good apps bought off and killed by competitors, or turned into premium apps, is the way of the world and the way of business. The list is long and I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Skype headed down that road. Hopefully, another app will come along to take its place.