In the world of technology is not unusual to see a big fish to be "consumed" by a larger one. It is the nature of the branch corporations seeking to better position themselves in an environment in which if neglected, may lose market, customers and most importantly for businesses, money.
And so it with the purchase of Skype by Microsoft to pay in cash a not insignificant 8,500 million dollars. Upon hearing the news two days ago, I remembered when, some years ago, I knew that Microsoft had acquired Hotmail, expectations about what would happen to the brand were much as now.
Then I wanted to play a text released by the people of http://www.cioal.com/ which summarizes the main questions about what will happen to both brands.
"The Redmond company bought Skype and Windows maker said it will integrate with many of its current products and services. Well The company also plans to support customers who use Skype on platforms that are not Microsoft, and Mac OS X or Linux. But what is surprising impulse purchase?
Skype has been on sale for a while and there was talk of several companies interested in buying the VoIP service, among them were names like Cisco, Google and Facebook. eBay bought Skype in 2005 for 2 thousand 600 million dollars but in 2009 sold most of its shares to a consortium of investors for one thousand 900 million dollars.
During this time there have been many criticisms Skype on the ability to become a profitable business but no one can deny is that it is a very popular service. Currently, there are 170 million active users of Skype worldwide and in 2010, visitors used 207 billion minutes of voice and video calls on Skype.
Skype and Microsoft are planning to give more information to give details of the acquisition. While we wait, here is a summary of what is known about the agreement and how it will affect users of this service.
Are Dead Skype standalone applications?
No, at least not yet. Microsoft said it will continue investing and supporting Skype on platforms other than Microsoft. Skype offers applications for Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Android, Blackberry, Symbian devices and IOS.
What will Microsoft do with Skype?
Microsoft said it plans to add support for Skype and Kinect Xbox and on Windows phones. The company also said it "will connect users of Skype with Outlook, Xbox LIVE and Lync, an enterprise unified communications client formerly known as Office Communications Server.
Microsoft already offers video chat to Xbox and Kinect called Video Kinect. Likely to use Skype to promote this service and the same could happen with Lync.
What about Skype and Xbox LIVE?
not clear yet if Microsoft is planning to offer Skype as one of the many services available in the Xbox LIVE with Netflix, Hulu Plus and Facebook. The company could also use Skype's core technology chats Xbox LIVE games.
Does this mean the death of Live Messenger?
Microsoft has yet to confirm whether Skype will integrate technology into their web applications and desktop Windows Live Messenger or Skype will completely replace Messenger.
What about Facebook?
has mentioned the possibility that Facebook was in the race to acquire Skype, the two companies have worked together before. Skype recently offered ability to integrate the Facebook news service and your list of contacts in Skype for Windows. Microsoft also has had strong ties with Facebook. In 2007, Microsoft made an investment of $ 240 million in Facebook in return for 1.6% of the network. Since then, the two companies have worked together on projects such as Docs and Facebook integration Bing searches. So do not be surprised if Skype chat appear on Facebook or a similar product. But the truth is that, for now, Microsoft has not officially announced any plans to work with Facebook on Skype.
According to TeleGeography for 2010, Skype is the leading provider of voice communication in the world, surpassing the providers of traditional telephone. "