Microsoft has confirmed that it has agreed to buy internet phone service Skype.

[irishspirit]

The deal will see Microsoft pay $8.5bn (?5.2bn) for Skype, making it Microsoft's largest acquisition.
Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users. In August last year it announced plans for a share flotation, but this was subsequently put on hold.

Internet auction house eBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2006, before selling 70% of it in 2009 for $2bn.
This majority stake was bought by a group of investors led by private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowit.

Other major shareholders include tech-firm Joltid and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Shares in Microsoft were down 1.3% at $25.50 in early trading in New York.

http://hot-discovery.blogspot.com/20...keover-of.html

Similar Threads:

• Microsoft changes skype supernodes architecture to support wiretapping
• Phone Call to IRS
• Pour Microsoft Security Essentials, Chrome ?tait un malware
• Microsoft admits Patriot Act can access EU-based cloud data

[Necromancer]

IMO, Microsoft really overpaid. $8.5bn is something like 30 times Skype's profits. Even if they incorporate Skype into the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone, it will likely never be profitable. Just another in the long list of companies Microsoft overpaid to acquire.

[M@e 311]

Good point Necromancer. Though I am sure they have far larger plans in store for it than that.

[magamud]

Money has nothing to do with it at top levels. Its centralized incrementalism.

[Northern Boy]

its the coming wave folks . It was a great product very little advertising on it . Very affordable . Now as MS does with all products it gets involved in it will corporatize it and flood it with ads to much like Google did with You Tube and MS did with Facebook. Another tool to be used against us Look for a take over of Netflix soon

[magamud]

Listen, the New Gestapo, which everyone will beg for, will use all your personal information to identify your personality. This selection process will involve your blood lines future on genetic breeding. Its no coincidence all of your medical records are being digitized. Believe me you wont have a chance when the designated psychologist has your SKYPE conversation of "conspirator" talk available. This will all be philanthropic to better serve humanity.

[TheTruthTeller]

The deal will see Microsoft pay $8.5bn (?5.2bn) for Skype, making it Microsoft's largest acquisition.
Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users. In August last year it announced plans for a share flotation, but this was subsequently put on hold.

Internet auction house eBay bought Skype for $2.6bn in 2006, before selling 70% of it in 2009 for $2bn.
This majority stake was bought by a group of investors led by private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowit.

Other major shareholders include tech-firm Joltid and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Shares in Microsoft were down 1.3% at $25.50 in early trading in New York.

http://hot-discovery.blogspot.com/20...keover-of.html

So they can spy on all truthers ??!!?
F u c k em i don't like skype anyway

[TheTruthTeller]

Money has nothing to do with it at top levels. Its centralized incrementalism.

There interst will be to prevent any interuptions of THEIR plans , they try to make it waterproof...

[magamud]

I dont think there has been any "interuptions" truth teller. Rather then waterproof I would call it mind proof.
They already have all the ammo they need to identify people who are not "taking" to the program. If not you in this generation, im sure they will have data for your kids as to why you were like this...

[Anchor]

They are spying on us anyway.

Right now Skype breaks down barriers, but I never really liked the way that the encryption system they used was proprietary and closed. Read backdoors for law enforcement.

In many respects I find Microsoft software a necessary evil - a bit like I need a bank, there are alternatives but the effort is high.

However, because Skype may now soon be under MS control, perhaps it is time to seek alternatives (based on more secure technology).

What is the Linux/Unix equivalent for Skype?

Are there any open source systems that we could use?

I dont like video, so i dont see that as necessary but I do like to have audio convo's from time to time.

John..

[magamud]

Anchor unfortunately there is no free communication. Of course i cannot prove this but here is some info. I bolded the name bytes.
History

Wiki Main article: History of the Internet
The USSR's launch of Sputnik spurred the United States to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, later DARPA) in February 1958 to regain a technological lead.[4][5] ARPA created the Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO) to further the research of the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) program, which had networked country-wide radar systems together for the first time. The IPTO's purpose was to find ways to address the US military's concern about survivability of their communications networks, and as a first step interconnect their computers at the Pentagon, Cheyenne Mountain, and Strategic Air Command headquarters (SAC). J. C. R. Licklider, a promoter of universal networking, was selected to head the IPTO. Licklider moved from the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory at Harvard University to MIT in 1950, after becoming interested in information technology. At MIT, he served on a committee that established Lincoln Laboratory and worked on the SAGE project. In 1957 he became a Vice President at BBN, where he bought the first production PDP-1 computer and conducted the first public demonstration of time-sharing.

Lincoln Laboratory is quite interesting to say the least.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Laboratory There is a project Charles in there....

BBN Technologies (originally Bolt, Beranek and Newman) is a high-technology company which provides research and development services. BBN is based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. It is perhaps best known for its work in the development of packet switching (including the ARPANET and the Internet) and for its 1978 acoustical analysis for the House Select Committee on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but it is also a military contractor, primarily for DARPA.
History Founded in 1948, by Leo Beranek and Richard Bolt, professors at MIT
They have examined the Richard Nixon tape with the 18 minutes erased during the Watergate scandal and the Dictabelt evidence which was purportedly a recording of the JFK assassination.
BBN was acquired by GTE in 1997 and BBN's ISP division BBN Planet was joined with GTE's national fiber network to become GTE Internetworking, "powered by BBN". When GTE and Bell Atlantic merged to become Verizon in 2000, the ISP portion of BBN was included in assets spun off as Genuity. In March 2004, Verizon sold BBN to a group of private investors. In September 2009, Raytheon entered into an agreement to acquire BBN.[1] The acquisition was completed on October 29, 2009.