Microsoft's Skype acquisition may impact Linux users
Countdown for Skype for Linux's end of life begins
May 09, 2011, 11:59 PM —
After a week of rumors about Skype being heavily courted by buyers such as Google and Facebook, it looks like the winning bidder may be Microsoft.
According to a story the Wall Street Journal broke late Monday evening (and later confirmed early Tuesday morning), Microsoft has closed a nearly $8 billion deal for the popular voice-over-IP company.
(In the video below, Keith Shaw talks with CIO.com's Shane O'Neill about Microsoft's $8.5 billion offer to buy Skype, and what it means for Microsoft's consumer and enterprise voice offerings.)
This deal will represent a pretty big sea change for not only the VoIP sector, but also the broader Software as a Service (SaaS) industry. Microsoft has not gained a lot of ground in the cloud, with Bing still behind Google, and not much success reported for Office 360 in comparison to other cloud services like Google Docs, either. Getting a hold of Skype, though, would be a big brand-name acquisition for Microsoft and put it right into the middle of the cloud game.
Skype has been a hot little property in the cloud market for some time, since eBay, the former owners of Skype, sold a majority share to an investment consortium in late 2009. For most industry watchers, it was only a matter of time before the consortium polished Skype up and trotted it out on the open market again. Now it looks like Microsoft may be the winning suitor.
See Video...
http://www.itworld.com/open-source/163509/microsofts-reported-skype-acquisition-may-impact-linux-users
http://www.itworld.com/open-source/163509/microsofts-reported-skype-acquisition-may-impact-linux-users
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