“After paying $8.5bn for Skype, what will Microsoft end up with? In a few years, I forecast it will be this: $8.5bn less in its bank accounts, a cats-in-a-bag fight between its Office division and its Online Services division over integration of the service, little – if any – kudos from consumers, and no appreciable effect on its bottom line,” Charles Arthur reports for The Guardian.
“That’s right: Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, might as well have put the money on a bonfire for all it’s going to do for the company’s share price, which has barely shifted in his 11-year tenure,” Arthur reports. “In fact at present, the share price reckons that Microsoft is less valuable as a single entity than if it were broken up.”
Arthur reports, “The trouble is that Skype is one of those great internet ideas that can’t be integrated into as many places as you might think. That’s partly because it uses its own protocols for the voice-over-internet system (which means it can’t be integrated into other VoIP services). But it’s also because even while all of our analogue conversations are being digitised, the phone system is one of those technologies so deeply embedded in our culture that you can’t get it out. When I called Skype’s people for comment on the talk of acquisition, it was a mobile phone number, not a Skype handle, that I looked for.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion; company’s largest-ever acquisition – May 10, 2011
It’s Hot Mail oll over again 🙂
Or more recently, “Kin” (aka Danger’s Sidekick). Or Connectix (Virtual PC). I’m sure there are many examples of Microsoft acquisitions that go nowhere fast.
Whether Microsoft makes any money on the deal or not, this could be the end of Skype as we know it. Microsoft is even more unscrupulous than Facebook, but not as smart.
While I personally know of no-one who’s ever paid anything to use Skype, I’m sure there are those who do. But, be sure (which is why I’m getting rid of Skype, a la MDN recommendation) that free Skype will be a thing of the past rather soon….
On the contrary I know tons of people (myself included) who pay to use Skype to make international calls. It is an excellent cheap service. I use both Google Talk and Skype.
now take a minute and remember how well the Danger acquisition was, mS managed to create the Kin and Kin II, and they sold in the hundreds!
Now we wait for MS to come out and say how they are willing to go the long haul on Skype ( ie lose money) in order to build, errr, something.
My mr ballmer stay as long as it takes….
This reminds me when Microsoft acquired Conectrix, the virtual pc and virtual ram for Mac.
Once they acquire that company, virtual ram disappeared and virtual pc had to became free because apple changed from PPC to intel.
Today, I don’t use skype for my iPhone, I use “Viber”, works a lot better than skype and face time works also better for video conferencing. So what’s the point of Microsoft buying skype? Another useless mad vision from a mad person?
Virtual PC died on the Mac, but MS did turn it into HyperV on Windows and integrated it beautifully into Windows 2008 Server and Windows 7. Its a wicked piece of tech on Win7, you can even set the Win7 boot loader to boot a virtual machine natively at startup.
I’m hoping they can do well with Skype, but I have my doubts. Hotmail keeps coming to mind and they completely destroyed that product!
oh yippeeeee!………oh wait I’m a Mac user and not a server room dork troll
“Connectix,” actually. I loved that company and Virtual PC . . . but, alas, it went the way of all things Microsoft: straight into the trash.
I went out with a conectrix once… an electrifying experience, let me tell you.
Best comment on the Baldmer take over of Skype:
Today, Microsoft buys Skype. Costs $8Bn.
Tomorrow, Apple makes Facetime open source. Cost to all vendors $0.00.
The look on Balmer’s face: Priceless.
actually if I’m not wrong, I remember Jobs saying facetime would be open, or was it free? hmm was it market standard ?
dont remember ..
You remember correctly.
FaceTime isn’t open source, it’s protocol is. This means, any vendor can write their own FaceTime style app, or integrate the protocol into a current app. Can’t wait for this to start happening!
The Bonfire of Vanities originally authored by Tom Wolfe now in its second edition guided by the editorial skills of Steve Ballmer. Way to go Baldy, let’s make a bonfire a mile high with those Benjamins.
the new name: “Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler”
…to be followed by “Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler Professional Edition” and “Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler Basic” and “Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler Deluxe Enterprise Edition”.
hahahaha
I just spit coffee all over my MacBook! Well done you two! I’m still chuckling about it while mopping up my coffee.
You forgot “Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler Home Edition”, you can’t really talk, but it does dots and dashes really well.
You forgot 2
“Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler Home Premium Edition”
and the one everybody will want:
“Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler Ultimate Edition”
if you’re just a few cents short, you get Windows Phone 7 Visage Vision Live Enabler Ultimate Edition Lite
You mean “WinCE Internet Edition with Video”
Classic! Click. Check. Click.
But will it squirt?
I just squirted. All over my keyboard (Mt. Dew).
Whats 8b to MS…they just have to wait a bit for their cash cows/monopoly approved system to generate the cash wasted by MS quarter after quarter…
with this thought is that they are just leaking and leaking and shrinking and drowning non-stop … on day it will be empty indeed…
Remember when MS “bought” Yahoo and then ‘overnight’ started bragging about ‘improved marketshare’ for Bing?
Yea, its like that.
Cry havoc and let slip the turds of war.
How long before Skype’s Mac support gets EVEN SUCKIER?
Do, I smell iView Media Pro all over again…
Well, maybe not THAT bad. But M¢ did a fine job killing it.
I can only guess they want to connect the living room through xbox with iOS and everything else. Say what you want about Microsoft and I’ll agree, but the one place they are doing things right is xbox live. It’s a hit and the competition doesn’t come close. When they put skype on xbox live they will bring the entire world into the living room for calls and video calls.
Maybe not worth 8billion but that is the best thing I can see them doing with this.
@MSav:
This January at CES2011 MS stated it had shipped a cumulative 50 million X-Boxes; Apple has sold over 108 million iPhones.
People carry their iPhones with them everywhere, and the X-Box stays in the living room.
What do you think is going to be the better platform for connecting people?
This is what we need m$ to do. Spend large amounts of its cash on companies anddonothing useful with them.
My bet is that m$ will incorporate it into thier windows phones for nokia as a FaceTime competitor. It willbe crap and cost lots of money to implement.
I hope that$ continue to do this since eventually they will start to lose money as their os and office monopoly diminish.
Suckers. Goodbye Skype, nice knowin’ ya.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42974629
A second opinion.
That CNBC link was spot on. That was my reaction as soon as I heard the deal was confirmed.
When this purchase goes nowhere, I feel Balmer will be out of MS.
This is his last Hurrah!
Even MS will have had enough!
They’ll definitely be losing a lot of folks like me right off the bat. Hello Fring.
I do not think that Skype was a good purchase for MS, however “Charles Arthur” is kind of a moron in some of his analysis here.
For one Skype having its own protocol is not going to stop MS from integrating the product into anything for the simple fact that MS now owns the protocol. They can port it or implement it anywhere they choose to invest the development dollars. DUH!
If any high up MS employees have an “Operation Valkyrie” planned out for Ballmer now would be the time to execute it 😉
the sad thing is that bozo can drive MSFT all the way down to zero and he would still come out a billionaire while the rest of us who actually have a clue and are ten times better looking will still have to hustle for a meal ticket. how is that fair? shouldn’t the IT industry be fair, considering all the intelligence we put into it?
I bet the first thing M$ does is to discontinue the Mac client, the second thing will be to make the interface as complicated as possible, third they’ll integrate it into the winblows OS, third they’ll blow a billion bucks promoting it and finally it will fade away into obscurity since no one will actually want to use it anymore.
Seriously, though having skype on board sound a great idea for windows, the truth is MS already owned it’s own messenger/chat/call system. They did not succeed in this thing. This is just going to be a Skype murder. Instead of chewing somebody else business wouldn’t be better if Ballmer just focus on what they already had?
During the 80’s recession, the saying in Seattle was: will the last person who leaves Seattle please turn off the lights.
As MS circles the bowl, the new saying will be: will the last person who leaves please flush the toilet.
So much for Skype. Tossed into my Trash. Sad to see you go. On to another technology…
Trashed mine too, never even used it.
Skype does bring in money, and they are separated from pretty much every other IM and communications client because with Skype, a user can make actual, real calls to landlines and mobile phones, to anyone in the world, with super low rates. Unlimited Canada/US calling to mobiles and landlines for $2.99 per month for instance.
Many people are paying for this service. And, you can send text messages to people. Skype can also be used anywhere in the world, on computers, tablets, and smartphones. If you’re abroad, you can use Skype to call back home for super low rates. For instance, if you’re in Chili, and need to call back to the US… if you’re on an unlimited plan, you can call and talk as long as you want.
Also, you can get a real phone number with Skype that people can call, and that will show up on people’s call displays when you call them from Skype. In addition, you can forward all calls into Skype to other phone numbers. It comes with its own voicemail, blah blah.
The value is incredible. Skype is without question because of all of this yards beyond any other in-class client on the planet.
You’re looking at a full-time Skype user. I dumped my iPhone and use an iPod Touch, complete with a phone number and unlimited calling plan. Yup, no 3G connection but I don’t always need to be connected. I pay $7 per month for a phone number and unlimited calling across Canada and the US. Plus, all my Skype contacts and video calling are integrated.
Skype is awesome. This is truly a sad day now that MS got them.
Damni it !! Skype *was* cool. M$ is the ultimate wet blanket.
Skype is awesome. This is truly a sad day now that MS got them.