MS buys Skype for 8 Billion

[KNUBB]

That's what I was thinking.


How do we pay to use Skype? If you say it's built into the price of our ISP I'm going to scream.

And LOL at 8 BILLION. They must have money to throw around now that the worthless Kinect is selling like hotcakes.

No you can pay skype to make calls to land lines and what not. The only thing free is Skype to Skype calling.

[BrntO4Life]

I wouldn't call it swollen.

Skype was estimated to be worth around 2 billion a few years ago and with everyone making the switch over to VOIP MS probably felt a little behind.

I think people seem to under estimate what skype is. It's way more then just a simple messenger that does video chat.

Any current estimates? I can't imagine that Skype doubled their net worth in the last few years and if they did, MS still paid double, as well as covered almost 3/4 of a billion in debt.

[jms493]

660 million user base is ALOT. I have no idea if they over paid....it does seem like a large sum of money.

[FedEx227]

660 million user base is ALOT. I have no idea if they over paid....it does seem like a large sum of money.

That's the big thing. Twitter doesn't make any money either but if they sold on the open market I'd imagine it'd be near this year. It's all about the base of users and how you can expand off that and turn that into a profit, not about what Skype does NOW.

[leaffan]

That's what I was thinking.


How do we pay to use Skype? If you say it's built into the price of our ISP I'm going to scream.

And LOL at 8 BILLION. They must have money to throw around now that the worthless Kinect is selling like hotcakes.

I used skype as my home phone for a couple months when I first moved into my house and I still use it once in a while when I need to make long distance calls. I use the pay per minute service since I pretty much use my cell 100% of the time.

Costs about 2.3 cents a min almost everywhere in the world.

I'm kinda boggled at the reaction here. Some of the other forums I'm on are appluding this move. Anyone thinking they bought it for the ability to use it over kinect or something really isn't aware of what skype does.

They were expected to bring in over a billion this year in profit alone. They have 600+ million subscribers and if they do bring skype in under the microsoft shadow, having things like video or audio conferencing integrated into windows is just massive.

Other thing was skype was owned by a bunch of different people.

A private equity firm called Silver Lake Partners owns 39%, ebay still owned 30%, the CPP (Canada Pension Plan Investment Board) owns 12% and theres a bunch of other little ones.

[BrntO4Life]

I don't think it's a terrible move, I'm just curious as to why they paid so much.

[leaffan]

I don't think it's a terrible move, I'm just curious as to why they paid so much.

Much like others said in the this thread they didn't want google, apple or cisco to get it.

Cisco was rumoured to be buying it back in October.

[Maynard]

MS severely overpaid for Skype, that's why. They're desperate - Google and Facebook aren't.

serious? what are they desperate about?

That's what I was thinking.


How do we pay to use Skype? If you say it's built into the price of our ISP I'm going to scream.

And LOL at 8 BILLION. They must have money to throw around now that the worthless Kinect is selling like hotcakes.

dam dude you really are clueless. i dont know why u comment on things you know nothing about.

also, if the Kinect is selling like hotcakes how can it be worthless? oh wait, its a MS product so your Sony pole stroking is guiding you well

[BrntO4Life]

serious? what are they desperate about?

Microsoft has been losing ground to Google for a long time. This is perceived as a way for them to push back and they did - by paying at least double Skype's net worth.

[Maynard]

how are they losing ground to google? i dont really see the comparison

[BrntO4Life]

how are they losing ground to google? i dont really see the comparison

What comparison? Google is providing many of the same services as Microsoft for a fraction of the cost.

- Google Documents might not be as feature-rich, but it's free and makes collaborative work much easier.
- Chrome is gaining further adoption, bolstered by the Web App Store.
- Google just announced a cloud music service that's currently in beta.
- Google is working on ChromeOS, which would also directly compete with MS.

Do you want me to list more areas in which they compete? Or is that satisfactory?

It's no secret that Google is aiming directly for Microsoft's head and they're climbing up them at a good pace.

[KNUBB]

What comparison? Google is providing many of the same services as Microsoft for a fraction of the cost.

- Google Documents might not be as feature-rich, but it's free and makes collaborative work much easier.
- Chrome is gaining further adoption, bolstered by the Web App Store.
- Google just announced a cloud music service that's currently in beta.
- Google is working on ChromeOS, which would also directly compete with MS.

Do you want me to list more areas in which they compete? Or is that satisfactory?

It's no secret that Google is aiming directly for Microsoft's head and they're climbing up them at a good pace.

Google is aiming at the entire world. They will be our overlords in 20 years. Accept them or die

[Maynard]

What comparison? Google is providing many of the same services as Microsoft for a fraction of the cost.

- Google Documents might not be as feature-rich, but it's free and makes collaborative work much easier.
- Chrome is gaining further adoption, bolstered by the Web App Store.
- Google just announced a cloud music service that's currently in beta.
- Google is working on ChromeOS, which would also directly compete with MS.

Do you want me to list more areas in which they compete? Or is that satisfactory?

It's no secret that Google is aiming directly for Microsoft's head and they're climbing up them at a good pace.

i wasnt being a smart ass. i was asking because i just dont see them as direct competition. I think of MS as a software company and Google is a web app company. which i guess is a parallel.

im not gonna dog any of those google apps u mentioned because i really dont know much about them...but i am gonna assume those are the top things to compare.

its not like MS is sitting there shaking about a google OS. they own that market in every way. Internet explorer blows, but so does chrome....a cloud service in beta doesnt add value to your argument...google docs....really?

so MS overpaid for skype right now. If they can make it generate 10 billion in revenue over the next 5 years would it be a worth while buy? i would say yes

[KNUBB]

Internet explorer blows, but so does chrome

:lolwut:

Chrome is by far the best browser out right now.

[jms493]

Google Chrome....is awesome!