Microsoft to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion

Microsoft might have lost a few battles to Apple when to comes to posting profits, but it still has a lot of money to buy new lucrative companies. This war chest will allow it to invest millions into search and other online products, which are not really what is making Microsoft profits. Microsoft has bought Skype for an estimated $8.5 Billion price tag.

Skype at the moment has over 145 million users but is still losing money. Microsoft will suddenly gain control of a very popular tech service.

Why it makes sense for Microsoft?

• Microsoft is still dependent on selling Windows OS and Office software for revenues. They have Bing search but it is not at all a real competitor to Google. It is also falling behind Apple and Android when it comes to the mobile phone market.
• Buying Skype will give Microsoft a straight forward advantage in the voice calls and internet chat market. This will give Google headaches with their Google Voice service.
• Microsoft also indirectly gains a lot of new users on Skype which can be used to direct them to other related services by Microsoft for higher revenues.

What are your views? Do you think Microsoft will make Skype a better product or will it ruin it? Do drop in your comments.

Source: Skype Blog