Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype for $8.5bn

[the_poet]

Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to buy internet phone service Skype. Read more...

To the mods: please close the old discussion thread.

 

[Name Trader]

So Bulmer has finally spent $8.5B of their $50B cash reserves. I hope it was worth it.

 

[johname]

ebay probably crying they sold it for 2 billion.

 

[the_poet]

MicrosoftSkype.com and MsSkype.com already taken. Some people will never learn. LOL

 

[Souleclipse]

Hmmm shall see Will microsoft charge us for using skype next time? (:

 

[Christopher-rojas]

I agree Ebay made a bad move when they sold it.

 

[Smiler]

Hmmm shall see Will microsoft charge us for using skype next time? (:

I have a feeling that Microsoft will eventually charge users down the line especially after forking over $8.5 billion in cash.

 

[Name Trader]

Google will keep them honest about any charges to customers.

 

[the_poet]

If they charged users for PC-to-PC calls, it would be Google Talk's victory.

 

[ecalc]

I agree Ebay made a bad move when they sold it.

Ebay said it will reap more than a 50 percent return from the company’s $2.6 billion investment in Skype Technologies SA six years ago ...

source

 

[Name Trader]

About 8% per year growth. Not a great investment, but not a dog, either

 

[johname]

ebays lucky they kept 35 percent

 

[adda4u]

I feel microsoft paid more than the reqd

 

[johname]

The Silver Lake people handled it the same way a domainer would sell a non trademarked name to Microsoft if knowing it was Microsoft. Alot of experts thought the google purchase of youtube was way too much. So we will have to see what they do with Skype

 

[Sparhawke]

Skype is a horrible, horrible system for the most part. If I wanted to have people jumping into someones line and screeching down the mic and constant interupptions I would go to a primary school, I don't need to pay $8.5B

This is less about getting a valuable piece of internet real estate I think, and more about beating their rival and lets face it, Microsoft has been looking like a wildebeest on its last legs for years now while the cheetah of Google has been around. It is a pissing contest, nothing more.

 

[theuniverse]

Suddenly we may feel it overpriced but they calculate everything before investing such big amount.

What is the value of namepros?

 

[Archangel]

The thread was closed

To the mods: please close the old discussion thread.

 

[Sparhawke]

Suddenly we may feel it overpriced but they calculate everything before investing such big amount.

What is the value of namepros?

I never once said it was overpriced, it is an internet company that has been around for a long long time and has a proven track record even though it is a bit overstretched currently, once you do get past the 5B mark though it is less about the figures and more about beating the next guy.

Just you watch next time, Google will not offer such a paltry sum if they are in competition with Microsoft; the young king will have to show the senile old George the III who is boss.

Microsoft got this less for themselves, but to keep it away from the likes of Google (who cannot really use it anyway) and of course Facebook which would be the natural choice because if they didn't then that would be another loss for them. With 170,000,000 users of Skype already they have a perfect opportunity just to incorporate it into their operating system and check off yet another "effectively cornered the market" tickbox.

 

[SimpleDomaining]

i see people being eventually directly or indirectly charged for using Skype...i was also wondering how bad Microsoft is going down that trying to keep up by buying popular things....