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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.
User Comments: 39
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Trust me, I go out of my way to not use Microsoft apps. My point was and has been from the beginning, Microsoft's purchase of Skype will not turn out to be a good thing for its users....maybe not immediately, but ultimately, and people should be looking into other options now instead of waiting for the inevitable. This reminds me of what happened with Danger (makers of the Sidekick). MS buys them out, recruits their talented personnel, then abandons the technology. Presto, competition eliminated.
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I'm confused. So we DO want MS to include everything with their OS, or we think its monopolistic and unfair to their competitors?
Besides, being on the internet since the 1990s myself, one thing is for sure is that if some previously useful program disappears or gets bought out, or stops being free, there will be 5 new programs offering the same free functionality the next day, as there does not appear to be a shortage of developers or computer science majors these days.
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Lets hope the people over at Sourceforge are all over this.
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Oh and btw, uninstalling via add/remove programs or programs>uninstall a program in the Control Panel is not always successful. That's where the very handy Windows Installer Clean Up Utility came in handy. After all, if there were no problems, there would have been no need for that app, yes?
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Guest said:
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:
[link]
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.
I'm not discussing the causes, but simply the effects. You're argument is that M$ has a "miserable" product support, and mine it is "not quite."
As I said, I am neutral on M$. I'm not defending their business practices, I'm defending their reliability as a company when it comes to supporting their products and services.
You say there are a lot of people who complain about the "support," of Hotmail, but like I asked earlier, what support? What software update do you need to make Hotmail better at, well, reading and sending e-mails? Please, I would like to know. I would also like to know why it's still the largest web-based e-mail provider in the world, if there are other alternatives with better "support"?
And I'm not discussing the reason as to why M$ ditched MS Chat, I'm saying there was no need to have an IRC client, when at the time, instant-messing technology was blooming. It was a totally different concept to be able to communicate without the use of a web browser, and without connecting to servers. Just launch up the program and there you go. Like I said: new ideas, protocols, and services were invented in the 90s. MSN Chat is what Messenger is today. Just renovated. The name might have been taken off, but it's the same type of service.
And that media-less policy thing. Regardless of what M$ said or did, they have NO word on whether your newly bought PC comes with a OS disk or not. An OEM such as, say, Dell, has licensed a certain amount of Windows computers in production, with Windows 7, for example. After the OS is bought, it is up to the OEM to include such disks with the product. It's not illegal to (not) do so, as the OEM has already bought the software from M$. In contrast, I've bought 2 Asus gaming notebooks this past year, and both came with an original OS disk, and a drivers disk. So your 11-year-old argument falls short, not only because is not relevant anymore, but because even at the time of that publication, OEMs still had the option to include such disks, and some still do. I personally don't consider not having the original OS disk a lack of "software support." Sure it is corporate greediness, but lack of support per se? Nah.
And I just said Groups is integrated with Windows Live Messenger! (Just like it was integrated with MSN Chat) It was never cut loose, but merely integrated into a full-featured software. Go download Messenger, and see for yourself.
Windows Live a resounding failure? No, sir, that's what you want to believe. The live services is just behind Yahoo, and YouTube. Yes, YouTube. And ahead of Twitter. Yeah, put THAT into perspective. While you might not like its software, M$'s services are among the biggest (worldwide, that is). You can hate M$ all you want (I'm not exactly fond of their software either), but I give credit where is due.
I'm not saying Skype will be great with M$. I'm merely against the belief M$ has been supporting its software miserably, as you suggested. Like I said on my first comment, I don't even know what to make of this Skype transaction. It could be bad, it could be good... Or a mix of both. Hey, Apple does it that way, and people seem to love it.
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Don't you people realize the implications of this?! Sky.net has become self aware...
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Don't you people realize the implications of this?! Sky.net has become self aware...
So you mean to tell me, either seriously or jokingly that Microsoft is Sky.net? Well until I see the proof, MS to me will stay a serious powerhouse in the world of Operating System creation and development and distribution. Also being a Office software manufacturer.
Heck I will be up there in Seattle in August for a meeting, might have to pack up my Microsoft Engineering credential and take a self guided tour of the place.
If I see any T-800's or T-850's or T-888's or even a T-1000, or what I think was the hottest model of all the T-X, the sexiest terminator, if I see any I will post back here and let you know!
Exit Note - In regards to Skype & Microsoft, I think we all should just sit back and wait and see what is going to happen. Companies get bought out all the time, companies merge both information and technology during a merger or buy out. People get nervous when a tool or tools that they have been using for years and are comfortable with are possibly going to change or be discontinued. As some have said here, if someone doesn't like one program or app, there are different ones out there to choose from. So in the end if someone doesn't like what Microsoft has done to Skype then don't use Microsoft Skype, maybe use the talking and video chat through Yahoo Instant Messenger. But for the moment I'm detecting a lot of "spinning your wheels in the mud" out of concern, worry, fear, or maybe a knowing or unknowing hatred for Microsoft in general.
Companies get created, companies rise, companies thrive, companies plateau, companies dip, companies start heading for the ground, companies crash and companies burn and yes sometimes companies get bought out! It's all about the world of big business, it's their version of a jungle and everyone wants to be king of their respective jungles.
I'm going to hold off on judging this situation until I see more "after the fact" with this buy out.
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"Guest
on May 10, 2011
4:46 PM Trust me, I go out of my way to not use Microsoft apps. "
"medialess policy proof! Here read this magazine articlez!"
"Oh and btw, uninstalling via add/remove programs or programs>uninstall a program in the Control Panel is not always successful. That's where the very handy Windows Installer Clean Up Utility"
So are these problems from an OS made 10yrs ago (XP) still hold true to Vista and Windows 7 today? Me thinks sometime in the 90s, when Microsoft burst down your door and ripped teh labels off your mattress, you "converted" to a radical "GNU" OS? And because you hate Microsoft so much, you want us all down this same terms of enlightenment?
Who needs paint.net, mSoffice, and advanced 3D FPS games * video editing when GIMP, cinelerra, and 3d tux racer is ALL YOU EVER NEED!
No thnx, I use the best tool for the job at hand, and currently for my business, my clients, and my gaming needs, its WINDOWS. If something better ever comes along, than I will switch. Until then, you're not taking my windows OS and all the cool freeware replacements I could never find on that "GNU" OS.
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SSaywell said:
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.
It case you haven't noticed it's Microsoft who's buying Skype. Who do you expect hate to turn against? All I was saying is that if it was Apple you would have gotten just as much hate, if not more.
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A complete and perfect communication system can handle video, sound (voice), text and all the combinations of those. That's mean text to speech, speech to text, translate on the fly (for later that), face recognition etc
Computers with kinects and connected to the internet are the clients of that system.
Microsoft I think is the only company who can make something like that reality.
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I bet that heads in Microsoft are smart enough for don't try killing the competitors (especially if they can see their code
) because then don't want end fat and slow. So Linux has a serious possibility to keep the skype too. -
"Ballmer adamant Microsoft keeping Skype alive for Mac, Linux"
Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/05/11/microsoft.ceo.
ows.support.for.non.windows.skype/#ixzz1M4vsKizUhttp://www.electronista.com/articles/11/05/11/microsoft.ceo.
ows.support.for.non.windows.skype/It's pretty much still an independent division.
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because then don't want end fat and slow.
what?
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... because they don't want end up a fat and slow company, I meant.
Fast typing
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