Microsoft & Skype. Small FAQ

Microsoft buys Skype for $ 8.5 billion and says it will integrate Skype with many of its existing products and services. The company also plans to support and develop Skype for Mac OS and Linux clients.

During the time Skype was put up for sale, the company received offers from Cisco, Google and Facebook. In 2005, the guys from Ebay bought Skype for $ 2.6 billion, but in 2009 they sold their stake to a consortium of investors for $ 1.9 billion.
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Many doubt the ability of Skype to make a real profit, but with the fact that this is a very popular service, you can not argue. Skype has 170 million active users, and in the past year, users have spoken for 207,000,000,000 minutes, including video calls.

Here's how the transaction will affect the further development of the service.

Stand-alone application will close and abandon?

No, at least not yet planned. Microsoft says it will continue to invest in it and support Skype on other platforms. Currently there are applications for Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and IOS devices.

What will Microsoft do with Skype?

Microsoft plans to add Skype support for Xbox, Kinect and Windows Phone devices. The company also reports that it will help users use the voice service in Outlook, Xbox LIVE and Lync (formerly known as Office Communications Server).

Microsoft already offers a video chat service for Xbox and Kinect users - Video Kinect. Presumably, Skype will be actively used in the Xbox (possibly in Lync), but at the moment Microsoft’s plans are not entirely clear.

So what's up with Skype and Xbox LIVE?

It is also not clear whether Microsoft will use Skype as one of the many services available on the Xbox LIVE platform along with Netflix, Hulu Plus and Facebook. Perhaps Skype will be used as the main chat technology in Xbox Live.

So now Windows Live Messenger will be scrapped?

Microsoft has not yet announced plans to integrate Skype into Windows Live Messenger and whether Skype can completely displace Messenger.

What about Mark?

Facebook also wanted to buy Skype, the companies collaborated - Skype recently offered the opportunity to embed news feeds from the friend list into the Skype client for Windows. Microsoft also collaborates with Facebook, in 2007 the company invested $ 240 million in exchange for a 1.6 percent share of the social network. Since then, companies have jointly developed services such as Docs for Facebook and FB to search engine Bing. So, it would be no wonder if Skype appeared in the Facebook chat.

But Microsoft has not officially announced the use of Skype in conjunction with Facebook.