Rumor has it that Microsoft is in talks with Skype. The software giant is interested in either acquiring the Luxembourg-based company, partnering with, or at the very least investing in it.
Apparently we will find out more details very soon: corporate attorneys and other senior managers are said to be working late this weekend. In fact, an announcement may be made later this week, according to sources cited by GigaOm, which also gave three reasons as to why Microsoft would be ideal for a Skype partnership:
- Skype would give Microsoft a big boost in the hotly contested enterprise collaboration market places, thanks to Skype's voice, video and sharing capabilities. It would be particularly useful for competing against Cisco and Google, two of its main rivals in the collaboration business.
- It would give them a must-have application/service that can help with the adoption of the future versions of Windows Mobile operating system.
- It would give Microsoft an outside chance of working with carriers, many of them looking to partner with Skype as they start to transition to LTE-based networks.
Unsurprisingly, neither Skype nor Microsoft are commenting on the rumor and speculation. This happened earlier this week as well: neither Facebook nor Google wanted to comment either.
That's right: Microsoft is the third company to show interest in either partnering with Skype or buying the company. Out of the three, I would argue that Facebook makes the most sense.
Both Microsoft and Google currently have VoIP technology as well as both software and web services that provide it. Facebook does not, but it does have 600 million users on its website that would probably be very interested in making voice and video calls with their friends.
Seeing as we don't know what will happen yet, this is a perfect time to ask our readers what they would like to see. Would you prefer that Skype partners with one of the aforementioned tech giants, or gets bought out? If it has to be an acquisition, which company would you want to see buy Skype?