Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#121

Post by damncabbage » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:24 AM UTC

alnayyir wrote: post #97

damncabbage wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ge…

>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 What? screen + irssi + /lastlog your_nick

1) Four of those friends are not technical, and wouldn't know what to do with irssi. The remainder are using laptops that get disconnected a lot.

2) I reboot to Windows to play games. There goes the screen session.

3) Skype on iPhones. Seriously. I ain't screwing around with a phone keyboard and terminal app to SSH in, screen -dR and scroll around just to get back into a chat.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#122

Post by Dylan16807 » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:24 AM UTC

alnayyir wrote: post #97

damncabbage wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ge…

>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 What? screen + irssi + /lastlog your_nick

Which is fine as long as you never go offline or reboot.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#123

Post by hyperbovine » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:30 AM UTC

sukuriant wrote: post #98

jsz0 wrote: post #87

This is Microsoft's ICQ moment. Overpaying for a company at the moment when its core competency is becoming a commodity. Does anyone have the slightest bit of loyalty to Skype? Of course not. They're going to use whichever video chat comes built into their SmartPhone, tablet, computer, etc. They're going to use FaceBook's eventual video chat service or something Google offers. No one is going to actively seek out Sky…

I have loyalty to Skype. And this is infinitely better than Facebook owning Skype, imo

FWIW, MS owns part of Facebook too.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#124

Post by alnayyir » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:32 AM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #122

alnayyir wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 What? screen + irssi + /lastlog your_nick

Which is fine as long as you never go offline or reboot.

linode.com

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#125

Post by alnayyir » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:32 AM UTC

damncabbage wrote: post #121

alnayyir wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 What? screen + irssi + /lastlog your_nick

1) Four of those friends are not technical, and wouldn't know what to do with irssi. The remainder are using laptops that get disconnected a lot. 2) I reboot to Windows to play games. There goes the screen session. 3) Skype on iPhones. Seriously. I ain't screwing around with a phone keyboard and terminal app to SSH in, screen -dR and scroll around just to get back into a chat.

I don't use IRC for specific people, if specific people want to speak with me, they can be-bop into mumble, call my phone, IM me, visit me, email me...I'm just explaining why the rationale specific to IRC doesn't make much sense.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#126

Post by darwinGod » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:40 AM UTC

So,I will have to create a live id to use skype ? :-/

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#127

Post by barrkel » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:41 AM UTC

pjy04 wrote: post #26

Skype is losing tons of money and needed to get out with whatever users it had. Microsoft can then sync this up with their own communication clients for a joint play.

Losing? 2010 EBITDA was $264 million, according to my cursory search.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#128

Post by dasil003 » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:43 AM UTC

Luyt wrote: post #114

LarryA wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's what will happen: After acquisition, MS will put out a lot of PR saying that cross-platform is "very important" in this new acquisition, they will even release an updated version on cross-platform. ...of course that update will be screwed up as it has been "fixed" to make all versions more "windows friendly" at the expense of features that may be better on other platforms (i.e. scrap the Mac interface, kill op…

I agree, but you forgot one thing they'll undoubtely do: they'll change the underlying protocol, so that existing Mac and Linux clients will not work with the Skype network anymore. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish

I don't think MS has the market clout to pull that anymore. Maybe if they want to turn it into corporate IP telephone to compete with Cisco, but if they shut Mac users out they're just asking for immediate irrelevance among the home/hipster/startup crowd which will quickly anoint a successor.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#129

Post by raganwald » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:44 AM UTC

lurker19 wrote: post #80

daimyoyo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's already happened. When Apple introduced Lion, one of the things they mentioned was they'd ported FaceTime to the Mac. You get it preloaded with a new Mac, or it's $0.99 in the Mac app store.

Mac is not a PC. Apple will hesitate a long while before bringing Facetime to the PC, because Facetime promotes all-important lock-in to the Apple ecosystem and sells Apple hardware.

I will bet a bottle of single malt that Apple will bring FaceTime to the PC.

I agree that FaceTime sells Apple hardware, but I think the hardware they want to sell is the iOS product line. Weigh how many Mac sales the will lose if people can get FaceTime on a PC against how many iPhone and iPad sales they will make to people who can now chat with Grandma on her PC?

Ubiquity on the desktop and exclusivity on the mobile device are wins for FaceTime just as they are wins for iTunes.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#130

Post by utnick » Tue, May 10, 2011, 5:45 AM UTC

jsz0 wrote: post #87

This is Microsoft's ICQ moment. Overpaying for a company at the moment when its core competency is becoming a commodity. Does anyone have the slightest bit of loyalty to Skype? Of course not. They're going to use whichever video chat comes built into their SmartPhone, tablet, computer, etc. They're going to use FaceBook's eventual video chat service or something Google offers. No one is going to actively seek out Sky…

Not 100% sure, but I think the moneymaker and core competency for skype is not video chat.

I have a skype account, I pay for a personalized USA number that people can call with their phones and reach me around the world, I also pay for the ability to dial any number around the world. All of my work contacts also have skype accounts which we use to communicate. It would take quite a bit to get me to move off of Skype.