Microsoft announced today that it has bought Skype for a staggering $8 billion, making it the biggest acquisition in the company’s 36-year history. But despite 124m connected users a month, Skype doesn’t actually make a profit. So why has Microsoft paid $8 billion for a company that last year make a loss of $1 million?
Microsoft are playing up the integration into devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone, and connect with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Some believe it’s for simply for the global customer user base.
But I personally think it’s to their answer to iPhone’s FaceTime. I think they foresee a future, a year or two from now, when 25% of the market are walking around having face-to-face conversations with their iPhones, while the rest of their disgruntled users look on in jealousy, and slowly start to succumb to Apple.
