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Microsoft Gets Green Light For Skype Acquisition

By - Source: Microsoft | B 23 comments

With Microsoft closing in on the final steps of its Skype acquisition, lets look at the reasons why they want Skype in the first place.

Microsoft clinched a huge win towards finalizing its Skype acquisition having now approvals from both the European Union and the United States to proceed.  In an $8.5 billion deal, Microsoft has secured perhaps its largest investment since its 2007 $6 billion purchase of aQuantive to expand further into online advertising.

“We’re pleased that the European Commission has approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype. This is an important milestone, as we’ve now received clearance from both the United States and the European Union. We look forward to completing soon the final steps needed to close the acquisition, bringing together the employees of Microsoft and Skype, and creating new opportunities for people to communicate and collaborate around the world,” stated Brad Smith, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Corporation.

What makes Skype so attractive to Microsoft is that Skype has become one of, if not, the most popular means of real-time communication through instant messaging and voice/video conferencing, a medium which has been widely adopted for both business and personal use on smartphones, desktops and tablet PCs.

While Microsoft already offers a variety of real-time communication solutions , boasting more than 500 million MSN users, it just doesn’t have the same reach that Skype will bring to the table. 

- Skype has partnerships in place with Facebook as the primary means to instant message and video chat Facebook friends. With Microsoft acquiring Skype and its 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, Microsoft will now have access to the potential 750 million Facebook users using Skype.

- Skype is actively used by Apple customers on their iPad and iPhones. Apple owns 74 percent of the Tablet PC market and almost 6 percent of the global phone market. Microsoft via Skype can also tap into this broad user base.

- Skype will facilitate for Microsoft a better means for user authentication and a wider reach in promoting its other products to the more than 170 million daily active Skype users.  It is one of the many strategic moves Microsoft  has set in place to reclaim its presence and market share in the smartphone and tablet PC arena.

Where Google and Apple currently dominate in the smartphone market, Microsoft hopes that its new partnership with Nokia Corporation, in a move to have Microsoft software power its smartphones, will make an impact with its upcoming Windows 8 OS targeted specifically for the smartphone and tablet PC market.

While it remains to be seen how successful this new acquisition will be for Microsoft, the rest of us can only await the outcome of whether this will affect our Skype usage fees as a means for Microsoft to recoup some of the billions spent on purchasing Skype.

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  • 6 Hide
    naterandrews , October 10, 2011 3:27 AM
    Microsoft, like any other company, is "all about money", they ARE a business after all. I don't think that we'll see too much happen overnight to Skype. What we will see is Skype patents and IP used in Bing, XBOX, Microsoft's hardware division, Windows and Windows Live and particularly Office. I think that Microsoft can make the Skype network greater with their resources and reach, and even get it in the hands of professionals through their powerful Server and Enterprise division.

    Chances are you use a product or service that is owned by Company XYZ and you don't even know it. I think of this as a good thing for the web, for multi-platform Skype users and for Microsoft (which many people still use IE, etc.- and would benefit from this acquisition.)
  • 8 Hide
    amk-aka-Phantom , October 10, 2011 3:38 AM
    icepick314what can MS do differently when eBay failed miserably?I sure can't think of any...


    GTFO troll
  • 1 Hide
    the_krasno , October 10, 2011 7:10 AM
    I like this, since I can't get most of my friends to ditch MSN for Skype maybe there will be some kind of cross-platform communications?
    Anyway, the resources Microsoft has can only mean good things for Skype.
  • 4 Hide
    amk-aka-Phantom , October 10, 2011 8:43 AM
    Quote:
    I like this, since I can't get most of my friends to ditch MSN for Skype maybe there will be some kind of cross-platform communications?
    Anyway, the resources Microsoft has can only mean good things for Skype.


    Who the hell uses MSN? :heink:  I don't know ANYONE who uses it.
  • 3 Hide
    back_by_demand , October 10, 2011 8:43 AM
    icepick314what can MS do differently when eBay failed miserably?I sure can't think of any...

    amk-aka-phantomGTFO troll

    +1000 to you.
  • 3 Hide
    Anonymous , October 10, 2011 9:34 AM
    The author of this article has an interesting name "C YB"
  • 0 Hide
    Pherule , October 10, 2011 10:30 AM
    I have good hope in this deal with Microsoft. It was a bit daunting at first (as a heavy skype user) to have it sold to MS, but after getting used to the idea, it could well be positive.
    Skype needs to bring back the functionality it had in v3.8, and subsequently lost in v4.0+
    The other thing is interoperability with skype is near useless atm. We need to be able to text & communicate with just about any other IM program through skype. That would give, in the long run, the largest boost to skype's market share.
  • 0 Hide
    amk-aka-Phantom , October 10, 2011 10:35 AM
    Quote:
    I have good hope in this deal with Microsoft. It was a bit daunting at first (as a heavy skype user) to have it sold to MS, but after getting used to the idea, it could well be positive.
    Skype needs to bring back the functionality it had in v3.8, and subsequently lost in v4.0+
    The other thing is interoperability with skype is near useless atm. We need to be able to text & communicate with just about any other IM program through skype. That would give, in the long run, the largest boost to skype's market share.


    3.8 was my favorite version of Skype: very resource-friendly and flexible. New versions are worse; I regret that Win7 doesn't let you run 3.8 on it. And Skype for Linux is a freakin' disaster, and now that MS got it, I don't see it getting any better.
  • 0 Hide
    house70 , October 10, 2011 11:36 AM
    amk-aka-phantom3.8 was my favorite version of Skype: very resource-friendly and flexible. New versions are worse; I regret that Win7 doesn't let you run 3.8 on it. And Skype for Linux is a freakin' disaster, and now that MS got it, I don't see it getting any better.

    You don't know that yet. Skype has been notorious lately for delayed support for Android, Linux and the like. They only developed properly for iOS and Windows. So, they have been a disaster even before this merger; I don't really see how much worse they can get. Check various Android forums for their (lack of) support from Skype.
    For mobile, I am using Tango already; better coverage of various devices. They have expanded recently to Windows and hopefully to Linux in near future.
  • 0 Hide
    Graham_71 , October 10, 2011 12:57 PM
    RogueKitsuneWell time to start looking for an alternative to Skype so when M$ F's it up I will have a back up plan.... Not saying that they will screw it up, but Microsoft sort of has a history of fixing things that are not broke.


    Let's hope Skype doesn't go the way of musicmatch jukebox after yahoo brought and killed it. Anyway there's always oovoo
  • 0 Hide
    xxCHAOSxx , October 10, 2011 2:06 PM
    I hate that the latest version of Skype loading that Facebook Status screen and no way to tell it not to appear in the options. That irks me. If i wanted Facebook I would open Facebook. I don't want or need Skype to do it for me.

    As for an alternative, there is OOVOO. the free version allows up to 6 people to vid confrence, but, i will admit that the overall vid and voice quality is far inferior to Skype. However it is an alternative if M$ adjusts fees and starts charging for computer to computer calling as well.
  • 1 Hide
    back_by_demand , October 10, 2011 4:07 PM
    amk-aka-phantomWho the hell uses MSN? I don't know ANYONE who uses it.

    Surely he means Window Live Messenger, some people still call it MSN, the same way people insist on calling a @live.com email a "hotmail" account.

    In which case, 330 million active users is not to be sneezed at.
  • 0 Hide
    amk-aka-Phantom , October 10, 2011 4:09 PM
    Quote:
    Surely he means Window Live Messenger, some people still call it MSN, the same way people insist on calling a @live.com email a "hotmail" account.

    In which case, 330 million active users is not to be sneezed at.


    I know what's MSN and that it has many users; I just never met one :lol: 
  • 0 Hide
    falchard , October 10, 2011 5:50 PM
    I think its obvious what Microsoft is gonna do with this. Skype integrated into Windows Live and offered for free yet again.
  • 0 Hide
    back_by_demand , October 10, 2011 9:04 PM
    amk-aka-phantomI know what's MSN and that it has many users; I just never met one

    Reminds me of one of my favorite Chris Rock lines from the 1997 MTV VMAs,
    Quote:
    The Spice Girls are kinda like heroin. Everybody's doing it, but nobody admits it
  • 0 Hide
    eddieroolz , October 10, 2011 11:38 PM
    Indeed Skype is the most well-known VoIP solution out there so far. A lot of people have Skype accounts.
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