Microsoft has made it official that they have acquired Skype, the 600-million strong cross-platform chat service, for a whopping $8.5 billion. The strategy, deemed awkward by investors seeing only $1 billion/year in revenue for Skype, is a likely step towards Microsoft integrating the service into its various mobile platforms and console services. The high price is also rumored to be the result of a fevered bidding war between Microsoft, Facebook, and Google, although the company has neither confirmed nor denied the notion.
“There’s a lot of potential but we’ll have to wait and see if they can allow it to grow or if they can innovate,” said Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst with Altimeter Group, a tech consulting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. “The concern is that Microsoft is too big to innovate.”
How do you feel about the purchase, E-Gs? What do you think we can expect from Microsoft in the future with this tech? Comment below!
So much for that Google rumor.
I remember reading that Google passed on buying Skype because it was conflicting with the work they were doing on Cloud-based operations.
I dont really see much use for using skype on a console, but thats just me
I do. Well not Skype, but MS can use the audio codec to make chat sound a whole lot better over LIVE. The same codec is used in Steam now and it makes Portal 2 cross-platform chat clear.