In a New York Times article written by Nick Wingfield entitled: $8.5 Billion Deal for Calling Service Presents a Puzzle, Skype has reached some very impressive milestones since being acquired by Microsoft for $8.5 billion:
- The number of people using Skype has increased 26% to more than 250 million
- Call minutes have increased 40% to 100 billion in the first quarter of 2012
Microsoft has big plans for Skype. The Company plans to integrate Skype into Lync, a communications product aimed at businesses. A second priority is to make Skype video conferencing work on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.
This is not the first time that Skye has been part of a much larger organization. In 2005, Skype was acquired by eBay for $2.6 billion. After the acquisition, the audience for Skype soared. But when expected synergies with eBay did not materialize, eBay spun off Skype into a separate company with new investors. Let’s hope that the second time proves to be a charm for the Company!
