Microsoft is buying Skype. It turns out the Wall Street Journal was right with today’s story about the upcoming acquisition. It took only a matter of hours for Microsoft to confirm it will indeed acquire Skype for the stunning figure of US 8.5 Billion dollars. The agreement has been approved by the boards of both companies.
Microsoft says the acquisition will benefit both consumers and enterprise customers and bolster their real-time communication products and services. CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer, reportedly the man behind this move said ““Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world”. In 2010, Skype had over 170 million users.
Microsoft go on to explain how the future operations will operate. Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft and CEO Tony Bates will take the position of Microsoft Skype Division. Today’s earlier speculation about integration with existing Microsoft services both in the consumer and business environments was indeed correct.
“Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.”
Interesting times ahead..
You can read through the full announcement at Microsoft PR
