Microsoft Purchases Skype for $8.5 Billion

[Rob Williams]

In a rather surprising deal this morning, Microsoft purchased Skype for a cool $8.5 billion, gaining 100% ownership of the VoIP provider. Going forward, Skype will become a new business unit from within Microsoft, and according to the company, it will become an integral piece of the puzzle for upcoming products. Will we see Skype functionality in Windows Live Messenger and Windows Phone? It goes without saying, and in fact, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[Optix]

Hasn't Skype been a money loser for the last few years? I smells a pay to use plan comin' down the tubes!

 

[OriginalJoeCool]

This'll suck if Microsoft starts charging for Skype use. Otherwise, it might be kind of cool.

 

[Rob Williams]

If Microsoft begins charging for people to make Skype-to-Skype calls, I'll stop using it for that and just continue using it as usual to call phones. Are there good alternatives for Skype?

 

[corwin155]

only way

the only reason microsoft is buying skype is because skype is encrypted
the usa government wants it un-encrypted thus the buy out
if it belongs to a company in the usa it MUST be un-encrypted ,look at yahoo or msn messenger

 

[OriginalJoeCool]

Interesting. Why do they have this rule? Patriot act or is it older than that? For alternatives, there's Empathy, Ekiga and others http://alternativeto.net/software/skype/?platform=linux. Apparently Google has google voice and video chat. Not sure how good any of them are, as I've never tried them.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

*Sigh*

It doesn't take a genius to work out what Microsoft would do to Skype... Advertising, on a pay-for service... oh shock... like we didn't see this coming.

 

[Kougar]

Does that mean Skype actually works again? Did they finally fix those unexplainable issues that resulted in a small percentage of users getting a program crash when started, then being unable to connect to anything or anyone on their contact list for weeks on end?

*tries Skype* Nope, I guess not. Guess that's Microsoft software for ya! j/k