I know that Microsoft are not always everybody’s favourite company but most of us use their products every day. Microsoft’s new acquisition of Skype will benefit many of us however, this may be through the integration with your XBox, your Windows Mobile Phone, Microsoft Outlook or Windows Messenger.
Best of all Skype can be connected directly in to our Telephone Systems!!!
It has been announced that the £5.2bn take over of the Internet Telephony giant Skype has been agreed by the boards of both Microsoft and Silver Lake, the leading firm in the investor group that picked up a majority stake in Skype in 2009. Also eBay, who bought Skype in 2005 for $2.6bn and retained a 30-percent stake when it sold the service off in 2009. The Skype network currently has around 170 million users and carried over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010.
Microsoft said in a statement on Tuesday that its acquisition of Skype would “increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities”. “Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world,” said Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer. “Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.”
It is planned that by the end of 2011, Skype will become a Microsoft business division called the Microsoft Skype Division. According to Microsoft, Skype will “support” various Microsoft devices.
This means that in the near future we will start to see not only Skype on the PC but also on Xbox Kinect, Windows Mobile Phones, Microsoft Outlook, Lync and other communities. Apart from the Windows version, Skype can be downloaded for Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone and Symbian, and is also integrated with TV sets from manufacturers such as Panasonic and Samsung.
Jim
