Acquiring Skype: A Macro Success for Microsoft
Microsoft’s buying charisma has paid off. Skype’s Tony Bates has just surrendered to Steve Ballmer last Tuesday, the day the end of bidding was announced.
The recent acquisition— Microsoft’s largest— left ordinary people questioning what will happen next to their favorite video calling service. Although it is already a fact that Microsoft will use Skype to improve their other services, people are still clueless about what exactly to expect.
And since the acquisition photo is filled with smiles and hopes, no doubt that both parties have gotten their shares fairly right.
On Skype
Bates’s abandonment of Skype can be a wakeup call to other runner-up competitors like Google and Yahoo. Microsoft’s success in buying Skype is one big move to empower not just their email and video calling services but their gaming and social network branches as well. Moreover, it seems like Microsoft is ready to abandon their competitors with this move.
On Facebook and other services
The $240 million Facebook share Microsoft bought in 2007 is still a negating factor to some Facebook users. They are wondering if this acquisition will take part on improving the social network’s poor chat and messaging system, or if it is just a plain act of establishing monopoly in the tech industry.
Although Facebook is ‘almost perfect’ for some of its users, its messaging feature’s setback—delayed message delivery, real-time failure and notification errors— is still unacceptable to some, especially to those who signed up for pure ‘communication’ reasons. When people heard of Zuckerber’s plan of buying Skype last week, high hopes arose, hoping this will help advance this particular disappointing feature.
And now that Microsoft has successfully bought Skype, chances of having Facebook‘s messaging improved is closer to reality.
On the other hand, PlayStation 2’s (they’re number one rival in gaming) lead in gaming console sales despite the security uproar is a major upset to Microsoft’s Xbox team. However, Xbox enthusiasts and gamers are still optimistic that this acquisition would finally close the gap between its closest rival.
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