Are you an IT Company in Boston that uses Skype for visual communications? Microsoft closed the deal on its $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype Global.
As previously reported in May by CNET, Microsoft explained their reasons for trying to make this deal happen.
“Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said today in a statement. “Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world.”
Skype’s voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services let people hold free video and voice calls over the Internet; Skype charges a fee for “SkypeOut,” which lets Skype users dial ordinary phone numbers, and “SkypeIn, which lets people dial an ordinary phone number that actually connects through to a Skype account online. Both services are useful for bypassing steep international calling rates using conventional telephone service.
It follows approval in June from the US Federal Trade Commission, which was satisfied there was sufficient competition from rival online services such as Google Talk to permit the deal to go ahead. Competition reviews are still under way in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Taiwan.
Opponents of the Skype deal – including Messagenet, a Milan-based rival to Skype, argued that the group was again “bundling” software in a manner the Commission stopped with respect to its internet browser and media player.
It’s been expected that Skype technology will become part of the Xbox game console and Kinect motion-sensing device, as well as with its Windows Phone products. The company will also connect Skype users with Outlook, Xbox Live, and others. Are you currently using Skype in your business? Have you been waiting for this technology to be standard in your Windows OS? We’d like to hear from you?
If you would like to read the entire CNET article, just click here.
