Microsoft buys Skype ...

[Paul11]

for 8.5 billion

how on earth can that be recovered as an investment. thats an insane amount of money

good move on microsofts part?

 

[Semple]

Yeah read it earlier with the news attached to the google developers conference.

Not used skype in a while so no idea what their plans are for it. They did promise they would continue to support other operating systems though.

 

[AHarvey]

tv is reporting £5.5 billion.

Quite a difference in reported sales prices

 

[Paul11]

it wasnt even as if skype was making lots of money

so it seems MS has bought it for the technology

just seems overpriced imo

 

[Efour]

does xbox live already have skype type services?

integrate itinto MSN messenger ?

 

[Cleeecooo]

Cant wait for that day when skype stops working on my iphone.

 

[i-bert]

for 8.5 billion

how on earth can that be recovered as an investment. thats an insane amount of money

good move on microsofts part?

It should be good when used with Kinect.

 

[RomanNose]

 

[Paul11]

tv is reporting £5.5 billion.

Quite a difference in reported sales prices

5.5b pounds (8.5b dollars)

 

[Jokester]

How does Skype generate revenue at the moment? I was under the impression it was free to use?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13343600

Seems it's more the technology they're after.

 

[Semple]

5.5b pounds (8.5b dollars)

was just about to post this

 

[Paul11]

How does Skype generate revenue at the moment? I was under the impression it was free to use?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13343600

Seems it's more the technology they're after.

they also have paid services allowing you to call to a landline with subscriptions

but its a small percentage of users that pay

most use it for free


even if it is just for the tech, thats a serious amount of money to pay for it

i just cant see how they will get a return on that

 

[Marky]

How does Skype generate revenue at the moment? I was under the impression it was free to use?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13343600

Seems it's more the technology they're after.

There are paid services that you can use - but I would imagine the majority use it for free.

Like you say - I imagine it's more for the technology.

I just hope they don't change anything (For example, changing it from its currently free model )

 

[cm1179]

wow. how much money has skype had invested in it? that's quite a result!

 

[LordSplodge]

Ahh Skype the poison chalice that gets passed around. Now good old Microsoft have paid way over the odds for them.

But why?

 

[Matteysan]

How does Skype generate revenue at the moment? I was under the impression it was free to use?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13343600

Seems it's more the technology they're after.

Calling landlines/mobiles in different destinations as far as I know. Could be good anyway cause Skype has gone really rubbish in the last few versions using 300mb+ ram in the friends list.

 

[loltim]

I love Steve Ballmer's voice

 

[Van Hellseek]

Skype was like so many internet phenomenons. A fantastic idea ruined by getting too big for their boots.

And I really can't quite understand the point of only being able to SMS one-way (even with paid accounts).

 

[LeJosh]

They've done this because SIP-trunking and VoIP is the future of telephony.

 

[LizardKing]

They've done this because SIP-trunking and VoIP is the future of telephony.

No other reason i can think of, but for 5billion (or whatever the figure is) I'm sure they could develop a far better tailor made solution for a half of that!

Thats a crazy amount of money!