Microsoft buys Skype?

[NatePsy]

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...atured+Content)

"Just days after reports that Google and Facebook were interested in partnering with, and possibly buying VoIP company Skype, comes a claim from the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is planning to buy the company for $7 billion, in a deal worth closer to $8 billion after Skype's debts are considered. This mirrors an earlier rumor of a Microsoft-Skype deal published by GigaOm. An annoucement could be made as early as Tuesday."

Seems Skype might be bought out by Microsoft, interesting.. What's more interesting is this.. Thoughts?
"Such a purchase would be Microsoft's biggest ever, surpassing even the $6 billion purchase of advertising firm aQuantive in 2007."

[moaradin]

Hopefully that means Xbox live wont have such shitty voice chat anymore. They're probably saving it for their new console though.

[Remilia]

Yeah, that is really strange.

Pretty much the last part of the article is what I'm thinking

Ultimately, it's hard to see how the Skype purchase is worthwhile from a technology or user access perspective. The technology isn't good enough and the users aren't lucrative enough or plentiful enough to justify it. But that doesn't mean it won't happen—and the prospect of keeping the company out of reach of Google and Facebook may just make the purchase irresistable.

[Deleted]

Hopefully that means Xbox live wont have such shitty voice chat anymore. They're probably saving it for their new console though.

Oh yes please! It is so bad now, until recently you couldn't even have a group conversation right?

[haxartus]

So they want to buy it so Google can't buy it ? That's stupid.
It will be better if Google gets it.

[NatePsy]

So they want to buy it so Google can't buy it ? That's stupid.
It will be better if Google gets it.

Who knows, could be implemented into Xbox Live for better call quality like Moaradin said, but we'll never know till later down the track I guess.

[Kakokun]

Merge with windows live incoming? What do you guys think?

[Djuntas]

yea, big sale. Wondor what its for, to expand money earning on Skype?

[Deleted]

yeah it could potential be a windows live merge

[haxartus]

Of course it will be a windows live merge. People like to have one account for everything.
I wonder if they will integrate it with Windows 8. This will increase the number of users exponentially.

[highlandr]

From Tomshardware.com

Microsoft has announced an $8.4 billion business deal that will see the Redmond-based software giant acquire VOIP phone service Skype.



It’s been just over two years since Skype and its old parent company eBay parted ways and it certainly wasted no time in finding a new buyer. Microsoft and Skype today announced a deal that would see the former acquire Skype from investor group Silver Lake for $8.5 billion in cash. We don’t need to tell you that $8.5 billion is a significant amount of cash, but as a price for Skype, it’s also going to shock a lot of people.

You see, in 2005, the company was sold to eBay for $2.6 billion, a price eBay felt was more than fair for a popular but still relatively small service that was expected to explode at any moment. Unfortunately for both companies, the partnership didn’t quite work out as planned. Skype grew, but slowly, and eBay didn’t really seem to know what to do with it. In April of 2008, just three years after its big purchase, eBay’s president and CEO John Donahoe said it would spend a year evaluating Skype before making any decisions about the company's future.

Fast forward a year and eBay announces plans to separate from Skype. In November of 2009, the online auction site sold Skype for approximately $1.9 billion in cash and a note from the buyer, Silver Lake Partners, in the principal amount of $125 million. TechCrunch reports that Skype filed IPO plans in August of 2010 and expected to raise $1 billion (its revenue in 2010 was $860 million). However, IPO plans were put on the backburner soon after the company’s new CEO, Tony Bates, was hired. That brings us to today's deal, which has already been approved by both boards of directors. Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft, and Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.

With a company like Microsoft behind it, Skype has huge potential and, unlike eBay, it seems Redmond is excited to mix the service up with existing products and services. The press release sent out this morning indicated that Skype would support an array of Microsoft devices, including Xbox, Kinect, Windows Phone 7 phones and Windows computers. For its part, Microsoft will connect users with Xbox Live, Outlook and Lync, among others.

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

Who’s ready for Kinect and Skype?

[Rend]

If they merge it to xbox live, they could make it so xbox players can talk to people who are on their PC, anyone else think that'd be awesome?

And it'd make the chat system much better ;o

[Zarasthura]

prepare for lots of advertisement spam ala Google with Youtube.

[Deleted]

MS already have an enterprise level voip system in Lync (which is heavily funded), so they shouldnt need skype for the IP - might just be removing competition, but at 8 billion thats an expensive removal.

[Angrybathtub]

What are your thoughts about this deal? Good or bad?
personally, i think it's a horrible move :S

here's a link to an article about it: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

[Fuzzzie]

Merged similar threads.

[Deleted]

It's bad but maybe it will lead to other services getting more popular like google talk which would be nice

[Karei]

Windows Live bugs the crap out of me, Both literally and figuratively.
Bad installations, faulty updates. Hell, even my Live ID wont link for some odd Microsuck reason.
Skype was good as it was. While the joint venture will be a good moneygain I don't see the program improving much now.