The rumors were true and just hours after they surfaced, Kara Swisher at The Wall Street Journal wrote that the deal is happening for Microsoft. The acquisition will cost Microsoft no less than 8.5 billion dollar and it was made official during the evening.
The deal at 8.5 billion dollar will be Microsoft’s biggest investment so far, and while the company will continue to show red numbers for the Internet division, where it competes against giants like Facebook and Google, it expects to turn things around through this deal.
Besides paying a large sum for Skype, about double the worth of the company, Microsoft gains access to the 663 million registered users Skype has. The plan is said to be to integrate Skype into Microsoft’s Windows Live and other services for communication online between consumers and businesses, even Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 according to WSJ.
One thing is for certain, the acquisition of Skype brings Microsoft many possibilities to broaden as a company and improve several of its services in this age where IT communication is a part of our everyday life, as both consumers and business men/women.
Microsoft says Skype will support all of the company services; Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and other Windows units, Skype will go into Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and more. Microsoft will continue to invest in Skype for non-Microsoft platforms.
