Following two nights of speculation, Microsoft has confirmed it will be purchasing Skype for $8.5 billion in cash.
The deal has already been approved by both boards of directors.
Skype has 170 million "connected users" and those users ran over 207 billion minutes of voice and video in 2010.
Microsoft says:
The acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and ... [ read the full article ]
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no more free pc to pc calls m$ will charge for every single minute used to any landline or pc lol. i would laugh if everyone dropped skype! theres 7 billion down the crapper.
This isn't about profits; it is about a stranglehold on communications. They are adding it to everything the make...it is going to be built into windows 8, and will probably be on windows update...maybe even office update. That is a lot of users.
Biggest waste of money ever. Not a good reflection on Microsoft's developer and marketing departments either, if the don't think they could make their own (profitable) rival service for that sort of money...
I'd rather just use a standardised SIP phone anyway.
If Free PC access goes away, then Logitech VID may get a boost. This would be a mistake on Microsoft's behalf to destroy the whole reason SKYPE has been successful for years. In 2004, I attended Monday Morning meetings using SKYPE, It's a tool I have set many clients up with and I would be lost without it (but I'm not going to pay for it, so Logitech VID might be the alternative even though it doesn't do a lot what SKYPE does).
