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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

#141

Post by mmaunder »

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…

There is a very strong network effect with Skype for PC to PC calls. But I doubt MS is going to get full value. They have had little success with freemium business models and I don't see why this would be different.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#142

Post by kooshball »

Rariel wrote: post #79

The only way I can think of for them to really, really make this worth it beyond just owning the service is to integrate it in to Outlook like gmail video/voice chat. Although worker bees would hate it, it would be cool as a supervisor to be able to "call" your employee from a program you already have open all day anyways. Or even co-workers working on a project too lazy to get up or lawyers who need to talk about so…

You can already do this in lync

http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/Product/Workloads/Pages/conf...

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#144

Post by bvi »

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…

While you're right about loyalty, quality matters too. Skype is infinitely better than Google Voice when it comes to video calls (very little lag, if at all!) - plus, users can video conference for free, which is not an option with Google Voice (as of now). My point is, Skype is the best product in the market in its domain, no question.

I do agree than Microsoft is massively overpaying for Skype, however.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#145

Post by codelion »

dasil003 wrote: post #131
codelion wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely, you are not aware what is a better user experience.

Yes I am and don't call me Surely? (sorry, punctuation nazi + Airplane reference temptation overwhelming)

http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2011/03/30/skype_5/

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#146

Post by Maakuth »

Sidnicious wrote: post #100
mikecarlucci wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, if Microsoft does buy Skype and make it Windows only, they would be opening a huge door for GChat as [EDIT: the obvious] cross-platform client. FaceTime too, I guess, if Apple decides to move in that direction. If Skype isn't the default, verbed, system, doesn't it lose some value?

On that node, didn’t Apple say, via Steve Jobs at the presentation where it was announced, that FaceTime was to become an open standard? What ever happened to that?

For what I understood, the protocols are open, but you can't join in the network without a private key signed by Apple :). It seems to use fairly standard protocols though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaceTime#Standards

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#147

Post by RuadhanMc »

Wasn't part of the problem for eBay that they did not actually own the core p2p technology that Skype used and instead licensed it from the former owners? Has Microsoft purchased that as well or are they just going to write their own? In which case quality will change...

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#149

Post by timc3 »

mmaunder wrote: post #141
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…

There is a very strong network effect with Skype for PC to PC calls. But I doubt MS is going to get full value. They have had little success with freemium business models and I don't see why this would be different.

In what way do you measure success? Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger for two services have a huge amount of users.

Re: Microsoft to buy Skype for $7 billion

#150

Post by pyre »

alnayyir wrote: post #124
Dylan16807 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

linode.com

Yes. Instead of using the free app Skype, I should instead pay $20/month for a virtual server just so that I can have an always-on screen session with an IRC client running in it. Makes total sense.
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