Microsoft Acquired Skype for 8.5b$

Today Microsoft acquired Skype for a price tag of 8.5b$, Cash! Skype, a leader in peer-to-peer real time communications with 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010, Skype has been a pioneer in creating rich, meaningful connections among friends, families and business colleagues globally.

Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "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 will become a new business division within Microsoft, and Skype CEO Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Ballmer.

"Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers," said Tony Bates. "Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype's plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate," Bates said.

Skype: Latest news on the massive downtime

Skype is finally coming slowly online. An official statement was also announced...

Status update on downtime

Skype structureAn update on the downtime which has been affecting many of you around the world: the ability of one Skype user to find another relies on what we call ‘supernodes’, and yesterday, a number of these failed due to a software issue, which we’ve now identified. Our engineers are working to resolve the problem.

Millions of you are already reporting that you can now sign in to Skype normally, and we estimate that there are already almost 5 million people online. As a guide, this is around 30% of what we’d expect at this time of day – and that number is increasing all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not possible for us to predict on an individual level when you’ll be able to sign in again, and we thank you for your patience in the meantime.

It’s worth noting that our enterprise product, Skype Connect, is working normally, though Skype Manager and our other web-based functions will continue to stay offline for a little longer. Additionally, features like group video calling will take longer to return to normal.

We’re sincerely sorry for this disruption - like you, all of us at Skype rely on Skype every day. We understand just how important Skype is to your friendships, family, and work, and so are particularly aware of the impact of rare problems like this. We’re working hard to restore full functionality to the Skype software, and hope to have more information to share soon. You can also follow @skype on Twitter for further updates.

Official Announcement

Skype is still down.

The problem appears to be serious for Skype. Up to this moment no one knows how many dollars are lost by businesses and by Skype itself due to this "downtime". Some people contacted me from Europe reporting connectivity issues.. Others sign in and then drop. Personally I couldn't even sign in yesterday and today the same goes on. Have your tried login in the main page of Skype? I can't even connect there, the site pushes me to yesterdays announcement about the downtime.