Google is believed to have made multibillion-dollar offers for both Groupon and Twitter. Investors are also fighting over the new generation of tech firms including Facebook, Groupon and Twitter. The Skype deal ranks as the biggest in Microsoft's 36-year history and follows multibillion-dollar strategic purchases by other tech giants including Intel, which bought the virus software specialist McAfee, and Hewlett Packard, which bought the handheld devices firm Palm. Just a year and a half later eBay has made its money back and the founders are sharing a $1.2bn payday. But eBay struggled to integrate Skype and argued with its founders and management, eventually selling it for $2.75bn to a private equity investor, Silver Lake, in 2009 but keeping a 30% stake.įriis and Zennström also backed the sale as part of a consortium that bought 14% of Skype. In 2005 eBay, the online auction company, bought it for $2.5bn. This is the second time it has been sold to a big tech firm. At peak times there are more than 23 million Skype users online. The retail giant WalMart started selling Skype hardware in 2007. The service has grown far beyond its techie roots and is already a mainstream product. Skype was founded in 2003 by Swedish tech entrepreneur Niklas Zennström and the Dane Janus Friis. "Skype addresses some major holes for Microsoft," he said. Gillis said Microsoft was likely to add Skype to its Xbox video games system, Office software and its mobile and tablet software. "Google has Google Voice, Apple is building up Facetime, Skype is a great brand," said Colin Gillis, an internet analyst at New York-based BGC Partners. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, said that with Microsoft's backing Skype would be able to build a future where "talking to friends and colleagues around the world will be as seamless as talking to them across a kitchen table or a conference room".īuying Skype gives Microsoft a recognised brand name on the internet at a time when Google and Apple are both building up their internet phone and video services. But most calls are free and the service has struggled to make a profit. Skype boasts about 170 million users every month and is adding 600,000 a day. This was originally posted on TechRepublic.Analysts said the deal would give Microsoft a boost in its increasingly bitter battle with Apple and Google. Skype open source? Ain't gonna happen (ZDNet).Why Microsoft is Buying Skype for $8.5 Billion (GigaOM).Microsoft's purchase of Skype: One expensive game of keep away (ZDNet).Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion creates new business division (ZDNet).Those are types of things Skype has been capable of for years but hasn't delivered on, and I expect we'll see Microsoft focus on those opportunities. Think of being able to securely IM a document directly from Microsoft Office to a Skype user on the other side of the world on a smartphone, or being able to use your Skype client to dial into a corporate telepresence system when you're on the road. Meanwhile, on the high end, Microsoft will work on building a business communications platform with Skype by making it a corporate unified communications platform that is tightly integrated across Microsoft's business software, servers, and services.Īt the Skype press conference, Ballmer said, "We dream about experiences that are not limited by distance or device." Microsoft is likely to keep the status quo with Skype's current consumer service, with only minimal changes. That's a good sign that Microsoft plans to invest in Skype, do a lot more with it than just the stuff we've seen so far, and turn it into a larger platform rather than just a voice and video service. For more on that, let's take a quick look at what the chiefs had to say about the deal: Second, Microsoft plans to make Skype an independent business unit within the company, with Skype CEO Tony Bates as the head of the division. That's the business reality of the situation. Turning Skype into a paid service would immediately shrink the user base and decrease the value of the property. While Microsoft has rocky history with acquisitions, I don't think we should be too concerned about the company destroying Skype or changing it from a free service to a paid service, and I'll explain why.įirst and foremost, Microsoft knows that it bought a consumer service that is loved by the public, and a most of Skype's value is based on the huge number of users it has. Photo credit: Harry McCracken | Technologizer Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Skype CEO Tony Bates shake hands.
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