http://twitter.com/#!/Microsoft/status/124728164881674240
http://twitter.com/#!/Skype/status/124729606828859392
After this short dialog on Twitter, Skype and Microsoft now announced that their deal has now been completed. Valued some $8.5 billion USD, Skype is making Microsoft one of the leading providers for Voice-over-IP phone services.
Skype CEO Tony Bates is now the president of the Skype Division at Microsoft. Bates expects his company to grow along with Microsoft. “This represents a huge leap forward in Skype’s mission to be the communications choice for a billion people every day,” he stated. Microsoft stresses that Skype is going to be integrated into other products. Yet, the VoIP application will still be offered for all platforms that have clients currently. This includes Android and iOS, being competition to Windows Phone, as well as Linux and Mac OS.
Originally founded in 2003, Skype was taken over by Ebay in 2005. Four years later, an investor group bought the company. Besides the large number of people who have Skype installed, its strategic advantages include a partnership with Facebook, a key factor in competing with similar service providers—like Google+ Hangouts, GTalk and Yahoo! Messenger.