Why not build one? Why keep trying to lift Skype to this purpose? It seems if they really wanted to they could make a good product.
it could cost more than 8bn to build one, and would take time too. Slack is right there, already built.
Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
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Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#62I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Slack was incorporated outside of the US where Microsoft could use some of its non domiciled cash on the acquisition? http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-admits-keeping-92-billion-o... Also interesting to think that Slack could be worth so much. Look at ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger, etc. It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new ge…
> It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new generation comes along with a new favorite tool. You've definitely got a point there. Although I do want to mention that part of the reason Slack eclipsed other tools was, in part, its Websocket based protocol. They have created a fairly complete unified messaging application because of it (IMO). They were the first movers in the area. I don…
IRC Cloud's web client uses WebSockets.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#63Small anecdote about Skype specifically as an instant messenger.
When eBay acquired Skype there was little willing adoption of it for IMs at eBay corporate. AIM (through whatever client) was the de facto standard. Management didn't like this but also didn't have the courage to say, "Skype is what you're using now."
So there was an embarrassingly transparent mandate from "IT" that AIM was disallowed due to a vague (but critical) "security" concern. That somehow persisted across versions and years.
This was sort of my experience of working at eBay and my impression of its management in a nutshell.
Skype may be good for voice/video, I don't know. It's a terrible instant messenger. The only one I ever used where I had to worry about it swallowing messages and couldn't just assume the recipient got them.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#64They should just ditch all of their efforts to try to make Skype or Lync working and either start it over or acquire a company that can do voice/video calls and text chat reliably like WeChat for example. Skype is such a tragic product that I can hardly believe that anybody would using it in a corporate environment if it wasn't MS who were pushing for it. One interesting question that comes up in my mind: is group voice calling a really hard problem to solve? At this stage I am much more likely to use a simple phone conference than Skype because it works just so much better. Curious what others think.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#65Sad thing is that Slack would be a far better fit for Microsoft, given that it's primarily business-focused. I've used Skype for work but only because it's the only option we've had, not because anyone actually wants to use it. Hangouts and Slack are so much more business-friendly. That said, I think MS made the right call given that they already own Skype. It could be good - great, even - if they actually tried . Th…
I really hate Skype, but unfortunately Skype has no alternative for group audio / video calls, with the occasional screen sharing. Hangouts seemed promising, but it's worse. But I can tell you that at our company we are giving up on Slack, but not on Skype. > rebuilding every native app they have from the ground up, every single one is awful On Mac OS X, which is what I use, it's acceptable. I found it to be fairly a…
Hangouts works far better for me than Skype. It just works. With skype, I struggle to even create video conversation. I remember one fateful day when I tried 4 different devices with skype installed, and had a complete failure to get any of them to work.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#66Did they forgot Yammer?
Yammer does seem like a better fit, branding and technology wise, for a Slack-like service than Skype. Microsoft has overextended the Skype brand. The new Skype services are so notoriously crappy that they are a liability to the name. Let the Skype brand focus exclusively on real-time video/multimedia communication. Let the Yammer brand focus on asynchronous, web-based communication for enterprises.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really hate Skype, but unfortunately Skype has no alternative for group audio / video calls, with the occasional screen sharing. Hangouts seemed promising, but it's worse. But I can tell you that at our company we are giving up on Slack, but not on Skype. > rebuilding every native app they have from the ground up, every single one is awful On Mac OS X, which is what I use, it's acceptable. I found it to be fairly a…
Hangouts works far better for me than Skype. It just works. With skype, I struggle to even create video conversation. I remember one fateful day when I tried 4 different devices with skype installed, and had a complete failure to get any of them to work.
It depends on your location I guess. I'm from Romania and travel and speak with people mostly in Europe. I've had the same failure you mention with Hangouts. And video quality was never OK whenever I tried, with frames being dropped and so on. Whereas Skype has been OK even on my mobile 3G/4G connection and I'm a heavy user.
In fairness, Skype had a couple of major network outages. Maybe you hit one of those.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#68Why not build one? Why keep trying to lift Skype to this purpose? It seems if they really wanted to they could make a good product.
it could cost more than 8bn to build one, and would take time too. Slack is right there, already built.
If it costs you more than $8bil to write a chat app then you're doing something wrong.
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#69Does anyone else find it bizarre that what is effectively a web-based IRC is (possibly) worth $8B?
It's far more than web-based IRC and has a substantial userbase, a significant number of whom are paying for the service. Given the failures MS has had with communication tools in the past, I'm not surprised at all they mulled an $8B acquisition of Slack
Re: Source: Microsoft mulled an $8B bid for Slack, will focus on Skype instead
#70I wonder if the outcome would have been different if Slack was incorporated outside of the US where Microsoft could use some of its non domiciled cash on the acquisition? http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-admits-keeping-92-billion-o... Also interesting to think that Slack could be worth so much. Look at ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger, etc. It seems as though slack like tools get eclipsed every 5-10 years as a new ge…
> ICQ, Microsoft instant messenger ... slack like tools... I think people too often overlook Slack's integrations. Yes, Slack is "just" chat or "just" a glorified IRC. Or is it? I don't know how long it would take me to integrate my Stripe, Github, Trello, and Zendesk streams into IRC to the point where I could set it and forget it. I think for business users at least, using this type of setup _effectively_ could mak…
Slack seems to have mostly eclipsed Hipchat, at least among Silicon Valley startups, but integrations probably weren't a huge factor in that. Slack does have a nicer flow for integrations, but Hipchat worked quite well (and actually had much-missed features like customizing the background color of messages; it's unfathomable how Slack could still not have this feature).