Microsoft to Announce $8.5 Billion Skype Purchase Tuesday, say Reports
Microsoft will purchase Skype for $8.5 billion in a deal expected to be announce Tuesday morning. According to news sites GigaOm and The Wall Street Journal's All Things D blog the the all-cash deal will make Microsoft a powerful player in Internet-based voice and video communications overnight.
Neither Microsoft or Skype have made any formal announcements as of this writing. Sources say a announcement is expected early Tuesday morning.
Previous reports suggested the purchase price would be somewhere between $7 billion and $8 billion. Skype has been on sale for a while now, and a number of companies reportedly showed interest in purchasing the web-based phone and video chat service, including Facebook, Google, and Cisco.
The $8.5 billion purchase would be Microsoft's largest acquisition in nearly three decades. Until now, Microsoft's most expensive acquisition was its2007 purchase of digital marketing services agency aQuantive for $6 billion.
Despite Skype's having a debt of $686 million, the deal should be a plus for Microsoft. After all, Microsoft will finally have a brand-name Web service under its wing, though it's believed Microsoft plans to integrate Skype into Microsoft Live.
Microsoft's Plans for Skype?
This also could mean that Kinect users can probably look forward to Skype calling through Xbox Live.
Another reason Microsoft will benefit from Skype--if Microsoft plans (and I'm sure it does) to use Skype on its Windows Phone 7 platform, it will finally have a competitive alternative to Google's Google Voice and Apple's Facetime services.
GigaOm breaks down who (likely) made what, based on an $8.5 billion purchase price:
- eBay gets $2.55 billion (eBay purchased a 30 percent stake in Skype in 2005)
- Skype co-founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis get $1.19 billion for their 14 percent stake
- Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) get $4.76 billion for their 56 percent stake
And of course Microsoft is out $8.5 billion, but they now have a new tool with which to (try to) terrorize Google and Apple. And everybody's happy!
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