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Business Title: Microsoft in Talks to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion Microsoft is in advanced talks to acquire Skype, which revolutionized telephone calls over the Internet, for $8.5 billion, including the assumption of debt, according to people involved in the negotiations. A deal is expected to be announced Tuesday morning, these people said, although they cautioned that the talks could still fall apart. A spokesman for Skype declined to comment, and calls to Microsoft were not returned. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest FYI "Thats because your basically and idiot." #2. To: go65 (#0) I was wondering who was going to buy Skype. Now we know. "Everything that can be invented has been invented."-- Charles Duell, Commissioner of US Patent Office, 1899 #3. To: jwpegler (#2) it's official, seems like a massive over-payment. "Thats because your basically and idiot." #4. To: go65 (#3) seems like a massive over-payment. They did overpay, but Microsoft needed this. Microsoft is a dominant player in the enterprise, but other than XBOX and Kinect (which is so cool), they are nowhere in the consumer space. They plan on integrating Skype with XBOX / Kinect, Windows Phone, MSN Messenger, and their corporate products like Lync (corporate IM and VOIP), Office, etc. Microsoft is starting to do the right things in the consumer space. XBOX is one of the three big players in games. Kinect is the coolest product to hit the market in years. Nokia is going to start using Windows Phone 7 for its smartphone products. Now, they've bought Skype. They are still a long way behind Apple and Google as a consumer brand. But they are in a far better position than they were a year ago. "Everything that can be invented has been invented."-- Charles Duell, Commissioner of US Patent Office, 1899 #5. To: jwpegler (#4) They are still a long way behind Apple and Google as a consumer brand. But they are in a far better position than they were a year ago. agreed - especially overseas. now if they only stop worrying about making everything Windows-centric. "Thats because your basically and idiot." #6. To: go65 (#5) (Edited) now if they only stop worrying about making everything Windows- centric. Skype brings that to the table too -- they are cross platform. "Everything that can be invented has been invented."-- Charles Duell, Commissioner of US Patent Office, 1899 #7. To: jwpegler (#6) Skype brings that to the table too -- they are cross platform. True, but their mac client has lagged behind their windows client for a while now. I'm still not optimistic that Microsoft can execute, you have to long far and wide to find a successful acquisition. We got burned when they bought Foldershare which we used for internal document sharing. Microsoft could never figure out what to do with it. Meanwhile Box.net took off in its place. They also fell on their face with the Sidekick, Zune, and even Windows Mobile (yes, Nokia is moving to it, but few people are picking Win 7 phones over Android or iOS devices). X-box and Kinect may be more exceptions to the rule. "Thats because your basically and idiot." #8. To: go65 (#7) All very true. Microsoft has had a very hard time executing over the last 10 years. They've especially failed with their acquisitions. Microsoft has become an inward looking company. IBM was a failing, inward looking company in the early 90s when I was there early in my career. They solved the problem by bringing in someone from the outside (Lew Gersner) who completely turned the company around. Microsoft has also screwed the pooch on mobile, in part because they've had 6 complete turnovers in their mobile leadership (business and technical) in the last dozen years. I used to do a lot of Microsoft mobile business. Today, I do ZERO. I did buy Windows Phone 7 phones for my and I last Christmas. We love them. Microsoft finally got it right. It may be too late, but I don't think so. Adoption of smartphones is growing like crazy. In my view the real competition will be between Google Android phones and Windows Phone. Apple is making the same mistakes it did with the Mac. As a result, it will be an also- ran. Microsoft is on the verge of the great success with Windows Azure (their Cloud Computing platform), which is far superior to both Amazon EC2 and Google App Engine at the same exact cost. Most of my business over the last year has been on Windows Azure. The Cloud Computing proposition is too compelling from a cost standpoint to fail. Today, Microsoft has the leading platform in terms of technology. "Everything that can be invented has been invented."-- Charles Duell, Commissioner of US Patent Office, 1899 Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest |
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