Online communications networks have always held a strong business allure. Long before Microsoft alighted on the idea of buying Skype, they were seen as useful tools for supporting and entrenching other businesses.
It may sound almost laughable now, but at the time of AOL’s acquisition of Time Warner, the AOL instant messaging system was talked of as a powerful distribution system for Time Warner’s media properties, and a big reason for the deal.
Ballmer and Bates on the Microsoft-Skype deal
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and Skype boss Tony Bates gave a press conference at 8am local time in San Francisco to discuss their $8.5bn deal, announced today.
After live-blogging the event, here are my initial conclusions: Read more
Skype can be the “glue” in Microsoft’s multimedia strategy
For Microsoft Skype could form the glue between its PC, mobile and gaming businesses that it has hitherto lacked.
Read more
Microsoft was in advanced discussions on Monday night about purchasing Skype, the internet telephone company, in what would be one of the US software company’s largest deals so far as it seeks to boost its online operations. Read more
Tech news from around the web:
“Granny, did the supernodes just crash again?”
One hazard of new mass-market consumer technologies is that they make geeks of us all. So it is with Skype, which has just come up with an exhaustive account of its spectacular pre-Christmas crash. But the implications go much further than the technical. With an IPO on the cards, this has not come at a good time. Read more
Reach for the Skype
Skype’s filing for an initial public offering on Monday comes as the communications service is reaching a new level of maturity.
Skype is available on a growing number of devices as rivals such as Apple’s FaceTime struggle to establish meaningful connections with customers and other services. Read more
Skype says HD Voice message is loud and clear
Mobile and fixed-line operators have shown little interest in improving the voice quality of phone calls, but the internet phone company Skype came out with a compelling reason for them to do so on Monday.
Speaking at the eComm conference in Silicon Valley, Jonathan Rosenberg, Skype‘s chief technology officer, said its users were talking for almost 50 per cent longer on calls delivered in high-definition quality. Read more
Skype brings video calls to the TV
Skype has announced some major advances for the consumer in video calling – with high-definition pictures enabled and integration with TV sets.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it isunveiling partnerships with LG and Panasonic to offer Skype–enabled HDTVs from the middle of this year. Their 720P HD webcams with built-in microphones are specially designed to pick up video and sound from couch distances. Read more
Skype soap opera set to continue
You just know that this is not the end.
It’s like one of those bad soap operas. There’s a big family wedding coming up and the distant European cousins aren’t invited. It leads to some vicious public name-calling. Eventually everyone calms down and the cousins are invited after all, though some other guests have be thrown off the list to make room for them.
But as soon as they all get in the same room again, it won’t take long for the bad feelings to return. You just know. Read more
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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
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