ShortFormBlogskype microsoft buyout Archives

cause A little while back, Microsoft agreed to buy out Skype — an $8 billion agreement, the largest in the tech titan’s history by far. The deal, a surprising one by any stretch, just passed regulatory scrutiny.
effectBefore the company’s merger with Microsoft goes final, the comany is reportedly firing a bunch of top executives — timing it so that the workers don’t get full paydays for the merger. Lamesauce. source

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Microsoft really wanted this. Microsoft right now is trying to do things to keep up with other faster-growing technology companies.
Bahl & Gaynor Inc. money manager Matt McCormick • Explaining why Microsoft went after Skype — offering a reported $8.5 billion for the company. They offered that much because they had to. Skype reportedly rebuffed any offers that were less than $7 billion. Steve Ballmer, during the announcement of the deal, suggested that the technology would be used for, among other things, its Xbox console, Office technology, Windows Mobile phones (where they could gain a real advantage, by the way) and corporate phone software. Skype is so widely-used that Microsoft could be sitting on the next generation of phone technology — something they need to stay in the game. (Also, a side note: Google was the only other serious bidder, but they didn’t get close to $7 billion.) source

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» The deal is close: Reports suggest a deal could be reached by Tuesday, which of course would be big. See, Skype has a huge userbase — around 663 million users — and they make billions of minutes worth of VOIP calls each year. Clearly Microsoft would be a better choice to own this company than eBay, but then again, anyone would’ve been a better choice than eBay.

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19 Jun 2011 22:56