Breadcrumbs

[Agust1337]

So much for that Skype IPO.
Fortune has confirmed that Microsoft (MSFT) has agreed to buy the voice-over-Internet company for $8.5 billion, including the assumption of debt. Expect a formal announcement within the next hour.
There had been reports last week that Skype was in acquisition or partnership talks with both Microsoft and Facebook.
Skype will become a new business unit within Microsoft, to be run by current Skype CEO Tony Bates. He will report directly to Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer.
Luxembourg-based Skype began life as a VC-backed company, before being acquired by eBay (EBAY) for $2.6 billion in 2005. The combination didn't quite work out, and eBay gave public thought to either selling the unit outright or spinning it off into an independent public company. In November 2009, it agreed to sell a 65% stake in Skype for $1.9 billion to an investor group that included Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Index Ventures (the 7th-largest leveraged buyout of 2009).
Skype then filed for a $100 million IPO last August. The company reported a $6.9 million net loss in 2010, on nearly $860 million in revenue. It reported just $686 million in long-term debt, and just over $1 billion in liabilities.
A couple quick thoughts, as details continue to come in:
1. This is, obviously, a remarkable return for the PE/VC firms that carved out Skype in November 2009. Not just cash-on-cash, but also IRR (which takes length of investment into account). Remember, this was a very controversial deal at the time. Pretty sure the term "hairy" was used more than once. There were questions as to whether Skype's problems should be pinned on eBay or were inherent, and there were subsequent lawsuits from the company's founders (who ultimately received a small ownership stake). Moreover, this was the single-largest check ever written by Silver Lake, and the first time that Andreessen Horowitz -- a very new firm at the time -- had done something that didn't look at all like traditional venture capital. OH, and the buying group guaranteed the leveraged loans (which is very unusual)
2. Remember all that talk that Microsoft was on the M&A sidelines? Pretty sure that will be tamped down for a bit. After all, this is the largest acquisition in company history. d this clearly will improve the value proposition of Microsoft devices like XBox and Kinect.
3. The price-tag suggests that eBay made a shrewd move in holding onto a large Skype stake, rather than selling the entire thing in 2009.

article made by: CNN

[Axel]

I heard it about an hour ago :(

[Agust1337]

Yeah same it's ashame that they sold skype now microsoft has it most likely over 80% of the product will be priced -.-

[mikethedj4]

Here's where I read about it. Not very happy about this though, cause I hate Microsoft.

[GoodGuy17]

I think this is awesome. Microsoft is the best company EVAR!

Apple sucks.

Microsoft should acquire Google. That would be the best thing to happen in my life.

I hate Skype as it is, but maybe they can make a better interface for it...

[mikethedj4]

I love Skype, but Microsoft better not charge for the free skype calling, otherwise there goes their $8 billion as that's mainly why people use it, I can see charging for businesses though.

I like Apple so much better than Microsoft. No one compares microsofts products with apples, it's always mp3 player vs. ipod touch, tablet pc vs ipad, smartphone vs. iphone, and so on. Microsoft needs to do what apple does and take control that's really the only way to do things is you work on the product to have the best experience for the user. Apple is Apple for a reason, and I've tried their products no problems at all, the Zune straight trash. Ever sense then I'm not buying any MS product again. ME was bad enough, then users had compatibility issues with Vista, and Zune was crap, XBOX gets major issues. I just can't stand Microsofts products. They better not screw Skype up.

[GoodGuy17]

This will more than likely sound cynical, but it was not meant to be: purely opinion, no intentional harm to be done.

Now on to my point:

Windows has more compatibility than Mac OS though.

And the only reason Mac OS doesn't have many viruses in circulation is because nobody wants to infect Mac... they focus on Windows.

But on your points: take control? They have control of the entire OS market basically. ME and Vista are the rejects, what about Apple's issues? XBOX 360 is from MS, nothing from Apple to answer back.

Also, I personally think Apple is astonishingly expensive.

[smashapps]

I read it was going to be $6 Billion

[mikethedj4]

It was 8 billion

Yes their laptops are expensive, at $1,000+ however most computers now a days are much more expensive, and if their cheaper they have nothing but crap hardware, so quality, and quantity is what you get as well as a good experience. What's to hate about that?

Additionally Apple has one of the cheapest, and best tablet pc's on the market. at $500. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is $400 I believe which is the cheapest at the moment.

[smashapps]

I read an update about the trade

Microsoft bought it to compete with Google and Microsoft is in investor in Facebook so Skype will be implemented into Facebook and you can buy SkypeMinutes with facebook credits and its to get more users on Skype as facebook has 600 million users lol :P I don't think they would make their money back though