There was talk last week of FaceBook and Skype being in talks, whereby, FB would buy Skype. That would make sense for FB. However, I was thinking that Google would try to get in the bidding for Skype too. That certainly makes sense for Google consider they have Google Talk, which is like Skype, offers free calling to the USA and Canada. So merging their Google Talk features and Skype, would have been awesome and would have given an even bigger user base.
I use Linux exclusively and Skype for Linux was always lagging behind the Windows and Mac versions, but they were trying. If Microsoft do acquire Skype, that would pretty much be the end of Skype on Linux. There are very few products Microsoft does well for any platform other than it own. I like Skype, my buddies and I use it for our conference calls. But I don’t know about Microsoft owning it. I will have wait to see what happens and how they maintain the Linux version and run the service.
So, the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history. The Wall Street Journal reports – and it has been confirmed – that Microsoft and Skype will announce today that Redmond will buy Skype for $8.5 billion. That’s a lot of money for a company that hasn’t ever actually made any profits.