Microsoft's $8bn purchase of Skype shocks the industry, but shouldn't!
POSTED Tue, 2011-05-10 05:24 | POSTED BY David Danto
It is being widely reported this morning that Skype has been purchased by Microsoft. Many industry analysts have stated that the assumed price – over 8 billion US - represents overpaying for a service that has never earned a profit. Many analysts don’t get it.
I have been stating for years that Skype has captured the hearts of a very wide cross section of the world community. Not just students and other novice users – even those in the collaborative communications industry. At industry events and seminars I have always asked what people use for video conferencing for business – and the answers would be typical – Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom, etc. Then I would ask what these people use personally. Skype was the answer for 99% of them – regardless of what they used professionally. I personally use Skype to speak to my family when I’m away on business travel – seeing and interacting with them making the thousands of miles we’re apart seem less depressing.
It doesn’t matter if the technology wasn’t worth $8bn, the directory was.
