• Microsoft Has Acquired Skype For $8.5 Billions

    // Gradly // Acquisition, blog, Featured, Microsoft, News 2 Responses

    As reported early today, Microsoft has officially announced on Tuesday the acquisition of Skype.

    The software giant announced the deal on Tuesday, valued at $8.5 billion cash. Both Skype and Microsoft’s board of directors have approved the deal and Microsoft will create a new business division especially for Skype. Skype CEO Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.

    Microsoft and Skype today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Skype.

    The acquisition will increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, bringing benefits to both consumers and enterprise users and generating significant new business and revenue opportunities. The combination will extend Skype’s world-class brand and the reach of its networked platform, while enhancing Microsoft’s existing portfolio of real-time communications products and services.

    With 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally. Microsoft has a long-standing focus and investment in real-time communications across its various platforms, including Lync (which saw 30 percent revenue growth in Q3), Outlook, Messenger, Hotmail and Xbox LIVE.

    Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.

    [Image courtesy winrumors]

  • Microsoft To Acquire Skype For $8.5 Billion

    // Gradly // Acquisition, blog, Featured, Microsoft, News, Rants & Raves 1 Response

    Following The WSJ report tonight which shows Microsoft, in what would be its most aggressive acquisition in the digital space, was getting closer on buying the online telephony and video communications giant Skype for $8.5 billion all in with an assumption of the company’s debt–$686 million.

    Kara of AllThingsD has confirmed the deal is actually done and will be announced early tomorrow morning.

    The purchase is a bold move for the software giant and its biggest acquisition in more than three decades.

    The big price will give Microsoft–which has struggled in its online efforts and has lost billions of dollars for its work–a big brand name on the Web.

    With Skype, which has been aggressively expanding, Microsoft will continue to lose money in its Internet efforts. Skype lost $7 million on revenue of $860 million. Operating profits, which Skype highlighted, were $264 million.

    But, sources said, the concept is bigger than just money, including getting access to Skype’s 663 million registered users.

    Skype has had a big-company owner before–eBay Inc. paid $2.6 billion in cash and stock for it in 2005, as a way for the auction site’s buyers and sellers to communicate.

    Facebook and Nokia seemed to be interested in the acquisition too:

    Other suitors have looked at Skype, including Google, although acquisition interest by Facebook was very much overblown, said several sources.

    Interestingly, Microsoft’s new smartphone partner Nokia also held meetings with Skype’s CEO Tony Bates, a former Cisco exec who arrived at the company relatively recently.

    Update:

    The deal confirmed by Microsoft