Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5b

[Stuart]

Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, in an all cash deal.

Read More

[Sojourn]

wow
just
wow

[ryanrich]

Freakin' madness...

Best reactions from around the web:

“Microsoft buying Skype for over $7 billion isn’t the craziest thing I’ve heard, but it’s damn close.” Nilay Patel

“Everyone jump on Skype” is about to become “Everyone jump on Microsoft P2P VoIP client for Windows Live Communications 7 Home/Pro/Ult” :-/ – Rene Ritchie

So Microsoft is paying $7 billion to lose even more money online each quarter. Makes perfect sense. – MG Siegler

Two turds don’t make an Eagle – Vic Gundotra

[Sojourn]

So the two guys that created Skype sold it once and now sold the remainder of their shares, effctively selling their creation twice for babillionz.

[DeathStrike]

yip. because after so long they were still a few mill short of making a profit..

me worried that ms is going to kill skype like msn... (endless trouble with msn at work.. we switched to google talk.)

[Siemens]

Soon Microsoft will buy MXIT as well for double this amount.

[Stuart]

Soon Microsoft will buy MXIT as well for double this amount.

they can kill mxit. i'd be fine with that.

[hamin_aus]

endless trouble with msn at work.. we switched to google talk

Why not Office Communicator if it's a corporate environment on a dedicated network - especially if you have a MS Exchange.
Is your IT department run by high-school kids?

[Ron2K]

Soon Microsoft will buy MXIT as well for double this amount.

they can kill mxit. i'd be fine with that.

BBM seems to be doing a good job at that, but I fear it's simply a case of trading one evil overlord for another...

[Siemens]

Even the adults are doing the BBM thing.
http://www.myfacewhen.com/148/

[KatrynKat]

only thing with BBM is that your friends must have a Blackberry for it to work.....
and that is not gonna happen...... not with me anyway....

[Siemens]

It has already happened. Look around you.

[RuadRauFlessa]

only thing with BBM is that your friends must have a Blackberry for it to work.....
and that is not gonna happen...... not with me anyway....

Nope.... -> http://mail2web.com/blog/2011/04/bbm-ap ... ne-rumors/

But then again... why not use something better than BBM like http://www.whatsapp.com/

[Stuart]

New logo:

[Synthesis]

[ryanrich]

Wow, didn't take MS very long. Skype is busy crashing worldwide...

[DeathStrike]

endless trouble with msn at work.. we switched to google talk

Why not Office Communicator if it's a corporate environment on a dedicated network - especially if you have a MS Exchange.
Is your IT department run by high-school kids?

No they use google talk/msn because they have business contacts that they need to keep in contact with also. so its not just our company on the chat.

But yes the IT department is run by a group of people (including myself) who are all between 20 and 30

[ryanrich]

Unified OCS can add accounts from different companies. I have many business contacts in mine from external companies. Smaller companies may not have it though and use gtalk/msn so I get what you're saying.

[Synthesis]

Just some updates:

Skype Fires Executives, Avoiding Payouts After Microsoft Buyout

Vice Presidents David Gurle, Christopher Dean, Russ Shaw and Don Albert were dismissed from the Luxembourg-based company, said the people, who requested anonymity because the departures aren’t public. Chief Marketing Officer Doug Bewsher and Anne Gillespie, head of human resources, were also fired. Executives Ramu Sunkara and Allyson Campa, from the 2011 Qik purchase, were also let go.

The timing of the dismissals means stock options will be worth less than if the executives stayed until the closing of the $8.5 billion deal, the people said. When a company gets bought, compensation is often tied to the purchase price, said Neil Sims, a managing director at Boyden, a search firm.

FTC Approval

Microsoft announced the Skype acquisition on May 10 and plans to connect it to Outlook e-mail, Xbox game console, Windows mobile phones and corporate-phone software. Skype offers voice and video calling over the Internet and is primarily used by consumers. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it approved the deal, according to a June 17 statement.
Gurle joined Skype in January 2010, overseeing its efforts to persuade corporations to adopt Skype. Dean served under Silverman as chief strategy officer, helping forge a partnership with Facebook Inc. Albert oversaw advertising endeavors including a partnership with The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Source

And in other news...

Internet search giant Google has released a software, WebRTC (real time chat), which is an open-source app and an answer to Skype’s recent popularity.

Google got a hold on the software when the company acquired Global IP Solutions (GIPS) last year. The company announced that the product can also be used to incorporate audio and video chats into Gmail which will not need a plug-in.

When Microsoft bought Skype last month, Google officials declared that the only reason Microsoft was able to buy it was because Google backed out of the deal. Now the Internet search giant is planning to build a Skype-like chat service for its Chrome browser that will compete with Microsoft.

Source