Microsoft strikes deal to acquire Skype

[Bhargav2010]

Microsoft Corp. has agreed to buy Skype Technologies SA for $8.5 billion, including debt, Fortune has confirmed. It is the most aggressive move yet by Microsoft to play in the increasingly-converged worlds of communication, information and entertainment.

Buying Skype -- a service that connects millions of users around the world via Internet-based telephony and video -- would give Microsoft a recognized brand name on the Internet at a time when it is struggling to get more traction in the consumer market.

Microsoft has invested heavily in marketing and improving the technology of its Bing search engine. While it has made some market share gains over the past year, Google Inc. still dominates the search market with more than 65 percent of U.S. searches going through its site.

At a value close to $8 billion, the Skype deal would rank at or near the top of the biggest acquisitions in the 36-year history of Microsoft, a company that traditionally has shied away from large deals. In 2007, Microsoft paid approximately $6 billion to acquire online advertising firm aQuantive Inc. Many current and former Microsoft executives believe Microsoft significantly overpaid for that deal. But they are also relieved that Microsoft gave up on an unsolicited $48 billion offer for Yahoo Inc. nearly three years ago. Yahoo is valued at half that sum today.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, though, sees the Internet as an essential battleground for Microsoft, a company that still makes the vast bulk of its profits from Windows and Office software systems. Investors have become increasingly concerned about Microsoft's ability to squeeze continued growth out of those businesses, as rival technologies from Apple Inc., Google and others put more pressure on profits.

The division behind Microsoft's hugely lucrative Office suite of applications also makes a product, known as Lync, which ties together email, instant messaging and voice communications into a single application. Skype could strengthen that offering.

The deal shows how far Skype has come since it was launched in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, two men who had created a file-sharing technology called Kazaa that became widely associated with music piracy. While Skype was initially popular with techies, it increasingly worked its way into the mainstream by offering free or cheap phone calls which were especially appealing to international callers.

When eBay Inc. purchased the company in 2005 for $2.6 billion in cash and stock, Skype was regarded as something of an experiment in which eBay's buyers and sellers would use the service to communicate about potential transactions.

The experiment faltered, and eBay gave up on Skype in 2009, selling a 70% stake to a group of technology investors including Silver Lake Partners, venture capital firms Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, who will make a handsome return on the Microsoft transaction.

For all its promise, Skype has had a mixed history as an operating business. It has produced little net profit in the eight years since it was founded. Profits continue to remain elusive as the company expands its business world-wide. Last year the company posted revenue of $860 million and $264 million in operating profits, but still had a loss of $7 million. The company had $686 million in long-term debt as of Dec. 31.

Skype uses a technology called voice over Internet protocol, which treats calls as data like email messages and routes them over the Internet, rather than a traditional phone network. Skype's software, which can be downloaded free, allows users to call other Skype users on computers or certain cellphones for free. Skype users can also call land lines for a fee and conduct video calls.

Skype could play a role in Microsoft's effort to turn around its fortunes in the mobile-phone market, an area where it has lagged badly behind rivals Apple and Google.

Microsoft will likely need to tread carefully, though, in integrating Skype into its mobile software because of the potential for pushback from wireless carriers, whose support Microsoft badly needs.

[galigannarao]

sSa_j@il sSa_j@il sSa_j@il

[Cheddi Chinnodu]

%<>( %<>( %<>( %<>(

[Chocolateboy]

%<>( %<>( %<>( %<>( %<>( %<>(

[Bhargav2010]

[quote author=Cheddi Chinnodu link=topic=191284.msg2329325#msg2329325 date=1305035364]
%<>( %<>( %<>( %<>(
[/quote][quote author=Chocolateboy link=topic=191284.msg2329331#msg2329331 date=1305035426]
%<>( %<>( %<>( %<>( %<>( %<>(
[/quote]

first vesindi nenu  *7*^ *7*^ *7*^ *7*^

[katharnak]

[quote author=Alexander link=topic=191284.msg2329538#msg2329538 date=1305038469]
first vesindi nenu  *7*^ *7*^ *7*^ *7*^
[/quote] %<>( %<>( %<>( %<>(

[Bhargav2010]

[quote author=katharnak link=topic=191284.msg2329545#msg2329545 date=1305038506]
%<>( %<>( %<>( %<>(
[/quote] @3$% @3$% @3$%  %<>( %<>(

[mba]

!q# !q# !q#

[Cheddi Chinnodu]

[quote author=mba link=topic=191284.msg2329653#msg2329653 date=1305039472]
!q# !q# !q#
[/quote] sFi_boink3 sFi_boink3

[psycopk]

[quote author=Alexander link=topic=191284.msg2329538#msg2329538 date=1305038469]
first vesindi nenu  *7*^ *7*^ *7*^ *7*^
[/quote]

you rock you rock you rock

[Bhargav2010]

[quote author=psycopk link=topic=191284.msg2329674#msg2329674 date=1305039618]
you rock you rock you rock
[/quote] thankyou thankyou thankyou

[Cheddi Chinnodu]

[quote author=Alexander link=topic=191284.msg2329688#msg2329688 date=1305039741]
thankyou thankyou thankyou
[/quote]
I also  you rock you rock you rock second nene vesa psyco mama kante mundhu  cry@fl cry@fl cry@fl cry@fl

[mba]

[quote author=Cheddi Chinnodu link=topic=191284.msg2329665#msg2329665 date=1305039582]
sFi_boink3 sFi_boink3
[/quote] sFi_boxing sFi_boxing sFi_boxing ee thokkalo microsoft ento annitini konesthundhi..
annitlo dochukovatame eedu.. product quality dobbesthadhi  sAng_banghead2

[Jack Sparrow]

[quote author=mba link=topic=191284.msg2329714#msg2329714 date=1305039956]
sFi_boxing sFi_boxing sFi_boxing ee thokkalo microsoft ento annitini konesthundhi..
annitlo dochukovatame eedu.. product quality dobbesthadhi  sAng_banghead2

[/quote]  CITI_$D# CITI_$D# *7*^ *7*^

[Cheddi Chinnodu]

[quote author=mba link=topic=191284.msg2329714#msg2329714 date=1305039956]
sFi_boxing sFi_boxing sFi_boxing ee thokkalo microsoft ento annitini konesthundhi..
annitlo dochukovatame eedu.. product quality dobbesthadhi  sAng_banghead2

[/quote] no comment no comment ela unnav bava  J@#D