Microsoft buying Skype

[zerocool84]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The Wall Street Journal reported tonight that Microsoft–in what would be its most aggressive acquisition in the digital space–was zeroing in on buying Skype for $8.5 billion.

Sources told BoomTown tonight that the deal for the online telephony giant is actually done and will be announced early tomorrow morning.

The deal–which is being spearheaded in a closely held negotiations by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, with an assist from top dealmaker Charles Songhurst–is a bold move for the software giant, which has struggled in its online efforts.

Skype, which had been headed bumpily for an IPO until now, will apparently be integrated into Microsoft’s Windows Live and other online communications efforts in both the consumer and enterprise arenas.

The deal is a big win for its recent investors, including Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.

At the time they made their investments, Skype was a huge legal mess with lawsuits flying.

Obviously, it has gotten cleaned up enough to attract Microsoft.

Others have looked at Skype, including Google, although acquisition interest by Facebook was overblown, said several sources.

Interestingly, Microsoft’s new smartphone partner Nokia also held meetings with Skype’s CEO Tony Bates, a former Cisco exec who arrived at the company relatively recently.

Interest in Skype by Microsoft was first reported by GigaOm’s Om Malik.

Tune in at 5 am PT for the press release, apparently, and lots and lots and lot of analysis.

More to obviously come…

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110509...istion-of-skype-tomorrow-morning/?mod=ATD_rss

 

[AFurryReptile]

Crap. And I just bought a phone number for a year too.

 

[TridenT]

lol jesus, $8.5bil? Didn't whoever buy it last (ebay?) buy it for $3.5billion before and lost tons on it?

 

[Lifted]

I can't wait to try out the new Microsoft SyncSkype!

I'm betting MS will be left with a shell in a few years, similar to News Corp and MySpace. Makes sense that MS would want them since Skype avoids open standards and charges 300% more than what the "unknown" guys charge.

 

[masteryoda34]

http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

 

[catilley1092]

Does this mean that I won't have to use Google's email service for the sole purpose of making free calls in the US & Canada now? I don't use their email for anything.

Hopefully, free calls will be bundled into Hotmail in the coming months.

Cat

 

[chusteczka]

Is there an open source alternative to Skype?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Does this mean that I won't have to use Google's email service for the sole purpose of making free calls in the US & Canada now? I don't use their email for anything.

Hopefully, free calls will be bundled into Hotmail in the coming months.

Cat

I think Yahoo already was offering something similar, and I'm almost certain there are other options than just Google Talk as well.

 

[TridenT]

Is there an open source alternative to Skype?

Not any good ones.

 

[l0cke]

I wonder what will happen to MSFT tomorrow.

 

[Joseph F]

What's wrong with M$ owning Skype?

 

[zerocool84]

What's wrong with M$ owning Skype?

It won't be free any more or you'll have to buy a Microsoft product to use it.

 

[Zee]

What's wrong with M$ owning Skype?

nothing. windows defender (giant) and MSE and various apps are all free.

 

[MotionMan]

Ruh-roh, Raggy.

MotionMan

 

[Jeff7]

developersdevelopersdevelopersdevelopers

 

[cronos]

I hope they don't just kill the current services. Skype2Go is incredibly useful.

 

[preslove]

lol

M$ prints money with Windows & Office, but can't make any $ on anything else. Their web services wing is way in the red & getting worse. Now they're paying $8.5b for skype. lolz

 

[LordMorpheus]

I'd rather it be in Microsoft's hands than Facebook's, which was the last rumor I heard.

edit: This was on slashdot at the end of last week.

 

[preslove]

I'd rather it be in Microsoft's hands than Facebook's, which was the last rumor I heard.

edit: This was on slashdot at the end of last week.

I doubt Facebook's offer came anywhere near that price. 8.5b is insane.

 

[Kirby]

nothing. windows defender (giant) and MSE and various apps are all free.

anything that works in linux?

 

[gevorg]

Goodbye Skype for Linux.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah both Facebook and Google were rumored to be interested in buying them, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is largely to keep them from getting it. We'll see, but I think Microsoft could have handled a similar service themselves fine (I remember reading that one of the reasons they wanted to do Xbox Live was to test out VoIP).

Then again, in Microsoft's place, I think the best thing for them is to buy a company that does something well and then integrate it versus doing it themselves. Gets rid of people's bias against Microsoft products as well as makes them look better to the DoJ.

Personally, I actually like a lot of what Microsoft's done the past few years. Silverlight, updated Vista, Win7, WP7, Zune, Live, and Bing are all pretty good products. I just wish that we'd see them release more of their concept stuff (like Courier, although they are slowly getting Surface out there). I get the feeling that there's kinda a disconnect between the people running things and the people doing a lot of the actual development, and so a lot of their stuff never sees the light of day because someone doesn't think they should make it. Then there's stuff like Kin, which was actually pretty damn good, but was hampered by forcing it into being a niche device versus stuff that should be integral to the mobile experience.

 

[Zee]

anything that works in linux?

linux has enough problems getting usb devices and simple shit like printers to work. baby steps. run as a server or something

 

[TechAZ]

Yeah both Facebook and Google were rumored to be interested in buying them, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is largely to keep them from getting it. We'll see, but I think Microsoft could have handled a similar service themselves fine (I remember reading that one of the reasons they wanted to do Xbox Live was to test out VoIP).

Then again, in Microsoft's place, I think the best thing for them is to buy a company that does something well and then integrate it versus doing it themselves. Gets rid of people's bias against Microsoft products as well as makes them look better to the DoJ.

Personally, I actually like a lot of what Microsoft's done the past few years. Silverlight, updated Vista, Win7, WP7, Zune, Live, and Bing are all pretty good products. I just wish that we'd see them release more of their concept stuff (like Courier, although they are slowly getting Surface out there). I get the feeling that there's kinda a disconnect between the people running things and the people doing a lot of the actual development, and so a lot of their stuff never sees the light of day because someone doesn't think they should make it. Then there's stuff like Kin, which was actually pretty damn good, but was hampered by forcing it into being a niche device versus stuff that should be integral to the mobile experience.

Maybe they are going to integrate Skype into XBOX Live and Office.

 

[silverpig]

Uh, guys, this is a MOBILE motivated purchase. I'm betting skype will be integrated with future versions of windows phone, and it will operate over VOIP and your data plan.

Windows Phone 8 - $30/mo, 6 GB data, unlimited calling in North America.