War should be the only study if a prince. He should consider peace only as a breathing-time, which gives him leisure to contrive, and furnishes as ability to execute military plans
Macchiavelli, The Prince
Best description for deal-maker Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as far as I can see!!
Yesterday, Microsoft made a bombshell announcement, Drop It Like It's Hot Style. Microsoft has purchase my favourite little Luxembourg-based VoIP company, Skype, for US$8.5 billion pieces of silver as stated in the article “Microsoft acquires Skype for US$8.5 billion”, published MAY 10, 2011 5:19 AM PDT by Don Reisinger, The Digital home - CNET News and confirmed by none other than the BBC News as stated in the article “Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype”, published 10 May 2011 22:18 GMT, BBC News.
People, this is some SERIOSLY big News, dwarfing news about Google’s Developer confab I/O which is taking place on Tuesday May 10th 2011AD as stated in the article “Google I/O Day One: Android on Top”, published MAY 10, 2011 12:08 PM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET News - Android Atlas.
More on this as the dust settles in another Blog article, probably on Geezam blog……coming soon!!!
But back to the main event!
For those who are statistics nerds like myself, if you have been keeping score, this IS Microsoft’s biggest acquisition to date.
Skype is a global leader in VoIP with some six hundred and sixty three million (663,000,000) global callers on devices as varied as PC’s, Laptops, Netbooks, smartphones and even Tablets as stated in the article “Update: Microsoft agrees to buy Skype for US$8.5 billion”, published May 10, 2011 08:45 AM ET By Peter Sayer, ComputerWorld
How I began writing blog articles about Skype is somewhat interesting!
I took notice of them ever since they stuck their nose into Video Calling as stated in my blog article entitled “Skype and the videophone - The Apple of my Eye is FaceTime” in which I speculated on the Integration of Skype into HDTV’s.
This initial speculation was based on an article by CNET News Larry Dignan as stated in the article “Skype reaches the living room via HDTV's” published January 5, 2010 5:27 AM PST by Larry Dignan, CNET - 2010 CES, CNET News.
Then the First Generation Apple iPad happened. Totally blowing your mind away as former CNET News Editor Natalie Morris nee Del Conte quote “touched the Apple iPad with these hands” before anyone else got it on Saturday 3rd April 2010.
I had speculated on its relevance to computing, gaming and its coming to Jamaica
- Apple iPad and the Future of Computing
- Apple iPad in the summer of 2010 - The Death of the Video Game Consoles
- Apple Pad bests the Apple iPhone - CLARO Sales Executives left with Mouths Agape
Since the appearance of this large portable screen Touch screen (like duh!?) then I began speculating that FaceTime would eventually be made into a licensed Video Calling Platform, not just restricted to the Apple iPhone.
Rather the obvious: the Apple iPad as stated in my blog articles “Apple and FaceTime - BladeRunner and Beyonce and Lady Gaga's Video Phone”. Then as time goes by, licensed to Electronics Device Makers to enable Connectivity to the FaceTime Platform for Cross-Platform Video Calling, as the Telecom Provider Network is irrelevant in Data Services.
Much as Apple already licenses Electronics Device Makers access to use their proprietary 30-Pin Connector as stated in my blog articles entitled “Chartroulette, FaceTime and Smartphone Video Calling - The Thomas Crown Affair”. Thus, I had speculated that it would be a lucrative tie-in for Apple.
Looks like Skype beat Apple to the punch on this one, effectively being bought out to have the brand integrated closely with Microsoft’s own suite of products and Cross-Platform Integration with Microsoft Lync as described in the article “Microsoft's Lync arrives, gets a Gates cameo”, published November 17, 2010 9:27 AM PST by Josh Lowensohn, CNET News - Microsoft and Microsoft Messenger.
The DigitalTrends writer Jeffrey Van Camp lays its straight, as even Microsoft OutLook and Microsoft Xbox Live Platforms will not escape Skype Integration as stated in his article “Microsoft buys Skype for US$8.5 billion”, published May 10, 2011 by Jeffrey Van Camp, DigitalTrends.
For a bit of perspective, this story is mentioned in my blog articles entitled “Digicel, Samsung Galaxy Tablets and Newspapers - Tomorrow Never Dies and the Paper Man”
Guess Microsoft is not too concerned about the Great Skype Outage of 2011 an outage so major that international News agencies got a whiff of it and ran like Paul Revere when the British were coming:
- “Skype CEO: 21 million Skype users back online”, published Thursday December 23, 2010 6:57 pm ET by Jessica Mintz, AP Technology Writer, Yahoo News
- “Skype CEO offers apology, credit for Wednesday's outage”, published Thursday December 23, 2010 1:59 pm ET By Ben Patterson, Technology Writer, Yahoo News
People, only one thing I can say about this deal, my Audia Granston’s favourite night-time phrase to scream out “mek the neighbour dem hear we” in one of our Seventh Day Adventist-inspired midnight trysts: OMG. As in, the number of articles covering this story is phenomenal.
Don’t like reading?
Then hear it from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s quirky speech in which he, oddly, repeats the word “irrepressible” as per the IDG video in the article “Microsoft Announces US$8.5 Billion Skype Acquisition”, published May 10, 2011 4:41 PM By IDG News Service, PCWorld.
The plans are straight and simple: Integration of Skype into everything that is Microsoft, in a nutshell, from Microsoft Office, Messenger to even Microsoft Xbox 360 in a deal signed, to quote Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer “last night!”
Possibly, this is part of Microsoft big Master Plan to get back into the Tablet and smartphone game. Follow the logic of what comes next in my article folks.
Microsoft’s partnership with smartphone and Telecom Equipment Supplier (?) Nokia, which I refer to as Nokia + Microsoft, certainly suggests this.
Nokia is doing heavy-lifting by making the hardware and Microsoft providing the Windows Phone 7 OS, chucking Symbian out the window to the Open Source Community as stated in the article “Symbian now fully open-sourced”, published February 4, 2010 6:25 AM PST by David Meyer, CNET News – Wireless.
Furball Unlucky Analyst Gartner is predicted this partnership will result in Microsoft + Nokia gaining 25% market share of the US of the smartphone market by 2014AD as stated in my blog article entitled “Nokia + Microsoft vs HP Web OS - Gartner's Ocean Eleven Plan to Rob the Casino”.
Good luck with that one, as I am sticking to my guns and saying it’ll be HP WebOS as per my Geezam Blog article entitled “HP and Web OS - 2011 is the Year of the Linux on PC”.
Microsoft already has a foot in FaceBook investment-wise as stated in the article “Microsoft's FaceBook stake: Maybe not so crazy”, published October 13, 2010 2:01 PM PDT by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News - The Social.
Skype has an app for Name-based VoIP Calling as stated in the article “The New Skype: Now with Facebook Integration and group Video calling”, published October 14, 2010, 12:28pm PDT by Sam Diaz, Between the Lines - ZDNet.
My blog article entitled “Google vs FaceBook - Age of Empire and TRON Legacy” noted this interesting constellation of Software giant, Social Network and VoIP Calling Platform.
But at the time, I could only see FaceBook as a Gaming Platform for Microsoft as stated in my blog article entitled “Facebook Credits and Online Gaming - The Pied Pipe's Revenge in the Age of Empire”, which was actually a follow-on, West Indies Cricket Style.
Microsoft acquisition of Skype also allows them, via Integration into its products and Social Networking partner FaceBook, to compete in the lucrative International Calling Telecom Sector against Google.
For the record Google Voice has tag-teamed with No. 3 Telecom Provider Sprint to provide Google Voice Calling, and Voicemail Transcription to all feature phones as stated in the article “Sprint adds Google Voice to Everything”, published March 21, 2011 11.34am EST by Sascha Segan, PCMagazine and my blog article entitled “AT&T - T-Mobile and Digicel-CLARO Comparisons - Alice Through the Looking Glass The Day After”.
This as a counterweight to the No. 1 Telecom Provider AT&T acquisition of No. 4 Telecom Provider T-Mobile, stepchild of German Telecom giant Deutsche Telecom AG for roughly US$39 billion pieces of silver. This may be also part o the reason for Microsoft acquisition of Skype.
One thing is for Certain: With this acquisition, Microsoft is taking aim at its long term enemy Google. Whether it is smartphones, Tablets or VoIP Calling, Microsoft recognizes the growing power of Google Android Platform, as the ambitions of Google for Android as plainly states at Google’s I/O Confab in this video from “Google unveils Android@Home”, published May 10, 2011 2:29 PM PDT, CNET News
Even Apple is effectively out of the picture long term, even with their dominant Apple iPad 2, as Apple too must worry about the growing dominance of Google on smartphones and Tablets and apparently now in appliances.
So one can predict what the discussion will be at Apple ’s WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) pow-wow this Monday June 6th 2011AD to Friday June 10th 2011AD as stated in my blog article entitled “Apple and the WWDC in June 2011 - Space Above and Beyond Android”.
Wouldn’t you wish you had been be a Fly On The Wall, Miley Cyrus Style, listening in on the negotiations and machinations of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s during that night of hammering out these historic US$8.5 billion pieces of silver deal for Skype?
Stay tuned for more details on this and news coming out of Google I/O Confab.
This as Wednesday May 11th 2011 will be a busy day for bloggers such as myself, up early cranking out our prognostications on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s midnight negotiations Drop It Like It's Hot Style!
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