Microsoft to Acquire Skype
Summary of Microsoft’s Plan to Acquire Skype
On Tuesday, May 10, Microsoft announced it would acquire the Internet phone service Skype for $8.5 billion from the Silver Lake investors. Both boards of directors have approved this deal and Skype will become a new division of Microsoft. The current chief executive of Skype, Tony Bates will lead the new Microsoft division and report to Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer.
According to Microsoft’s press release, “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…The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The parties hope to obtain all required regulatory clearances during the course of this calendar year.”
There has been significant negative feedback from consumers regarding this business merger. Consumers fear Skype will no longer be as great of a product, will no longer be free and overall customer support will suffer under Microsoft ownership.
Reaction to Microsoft’s plan to Acquire Skype
Both Skype and Microsoft did an adequate job at presenting this business deal to their consumers, however, has not done anything to address the negative feedback from customers. Since May 10, there has not been any effort on either party to address this business acquisition.
On May 10, both organizations made the announcement via twitter, Facebook, their personal website and the press conference. All notifications were very simple, straightforward and provided their followings with a link to watch the press conference and read their news releases (Microsoft) and blog (Skype). All press releases and blogs were very positive, and both CEOs spoke very highly of the other and the whole acquisition leading to improvement for both organizations.
Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer said, “Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world…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’s CEO, Tony Bates said, “Microsoft and Skype share the vision of bringing software innovation and products to our customers. 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.”
Despite their initial positive and reassuring initiatives, neither organization has mentioned the acquisition via social networking sites or released any new press releases to address the negative feedback both customers have received since May 10. Below are links to both organization’s Facebook notification and Skype’s blog post with comments displayed. Wall Street Journal even presented their readers with a poll and of 5000 votes, over 60% think this is a bad business deal.
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/Skype/posts/224193324262701
