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Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

online.wsj.com

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Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#51

Post by brianbreslin »

benologist wrote: post #47
fredoliveira wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with you as to what happened, but I'm genuinely curious as to why you think that Microsoft, Google and Facebook are all awful choices.

Google has no support, Facebook is staging a war against privacy, and Microsoft has some pretty meh software outside of Windows (when they bother to have any version at all). I guess ultimately MS buying it was not the worst decision - a second-class client on non-Windows is better than Google not supporting it till the users give up and they can discontinue it, or Facebook defaulting to telling the whole frigging wo…

You are looking at this too much from your viewpoint as a consumer, not skype viewpoint as a Corp.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#52

Post by pyre »

prostoalex wrote: post #38
cfinke wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The value of the dollar's dropped. Since the owners are almost all US-based (I think), fluctuation in the dollar against foreign markets shouldn't have much impact on Skype's pricing. Even so, the dollar's value against the Euro hasn't hardly changed at all: eBay announced their sale of Skype on September 1, when 1 USD = 0.7 EUR. Today. 1 USD = 0.6975 EUR.

> a group of technology investors including Silver Lake Partners, venture capital firms Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

  Sept 1: 1 USD = 1.05 CAD
  Now:    1 USD = 0.96 CAD
Not to mention that the valuation was done in US dollars, and the sale is being done in US dollars.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#53

Post by damncabbage »

william42 wrote: post #43
joshzayin wrote: post #4

If this goes through, I wonder what would happen to Skype's Linux and Mac support. I'd hope MS would still support it, but I don't think they have any Linux software currently (I'm not positive about that, so please correct me if I'm wrong) and the Mac version of Office is always delayed compared to the Windows version. I hope Skype doesn't similarly languish.

I've used the Linux version of Skype. It's rather bare-bones.

Which is great. It does pretty much everything the Windows client does (chat, voice, video, desktop sharing), without the big, gaudy, annoying interface.

I fear that it'll just go away, or actively get shut down by compatibility changes.

(My friends and I practically live on Skype. The one killer feature for us is persistent chatrooms; it's like IRC, except when I log in I get all the missing chat history I didn't get while I was logged out.)

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#54

Post by benologist »

brianbreslin wrote: post #51
benologist wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has no support, Facebook is staging a war against privacy, and Microsoft has some pretty meh software outside of Windows (when they bother to have any version at all). I guess ultimately MS buying it was not the worst decision - a second-class client on non-Windows is better than Google not supporting it till the users give up and they can discontinue it, or Facebook defaulting to telling the whole frigging wo…

You are looking at this too much from your viewpoint as a consumer, not skype viewpoint as a Corp.

Of course ... I've been a (paying) user of Skype for years, I don't care about what's best or least-bad for them as a corporation, I care about me!

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#55

Post by TeHCrAzY »

hanszeir wrote: post #42

I hope Microsoft Skype does not require a hotmail account. This is good opportunity for Skype's competitors such as FaceTime to grow.

For a long, long time now, MS services (not directly tied to Hotmail itself) have required a Live account only, which can be created with any email address.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#58

Post by boyter »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #31

Goodbye "Skype®", hello "Microsoft Windows Live Connect for Windows Live®"

I doubt it. I would hazard a guess that a this is a mindshare acquisition not technology. It might be branded as "Microsoft Skype" but to drop the name Skype would be a seriously stupid move, and Microsoft is anything but stupid. Bureaucratic yes, but not stupid.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#59

Post by lotusleaf1987 »

daimyoyo wrote: post #48

I have a feeling that Microsoft was suckered on this one. Google and Facebook probably had no interest in skype, but bid it up so Microsoft would have to pay more. You'd think after all these years, and having this same thing happen time after time that they'd know that trick and see it coming. Guess not.

I think Skype would have been more valuable to Google, than to Microsoft--imagine having a free Google Voice number linked to your Skype ID. I think Microsoft was willing to pay a $1-2 Billion premium to keep it from Google and maybe a bit more to be able to use it as a bargaining chip with Facebook in their (MSFT and Facebook) pseudo-alliance.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#60

Post by lotusleaf1987 »

brisance wrote: post #57

I fail to see how this is a wise business decision. Skype has been losing money for a long time, and with cheap/free competition like Google video chat and FaceTime etc, why would MSFT invest in this?

I think you answered your own question: to compete with FaceTime and Google Voice. I think they're afraid to sit this race out the way they did mobile and get left behind again.
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