Microsoft buys Skype

Microsoft buys Skype. The U.S. software giant Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Internet phone service Skype for a total of 8,500 million dollars (about 5,560 million euros), with the aim of strengthening its business with the smartphones.

The amount of the transaction is significantly higher than that calculated Skype. The services offered by both companies will be so closely linked: for example, Skype will become part of Xbox , the Microsoft game console, and will be linked to Outlook messaging program.

The lucky vendors are basically venture capital fund ('private equity') Silver Lake and other minority members among those Adresa funds and Index Ventures, in addition to the pension plan for public employees in Canada. This group of investors controls 70% of Skype .

The rest is owned by online auction house eBay , with this operation, has managed to get some benefit from their investment in Skype after almost five years without being able to capitalize on the 2,100 billion spent in 2006 to buy that company.

Skype allows its users to talk on the phone for free via internet, also with video. The company benefits from low-cost calls to the telephone network. It is a service that has more than 660 million registered users.

Microsoft is not the first company that was interested in Skype. Perhaps that is why the final price of the transaction is the result of several major industry dispute. Recently it was reported that Skype held talks with Google and Facebook .