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Microsoft buys Skype

17 October 2011 13:39 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev - APA-Economics. Microsoft announced its new $8.5 billion purchase: Skype.

Skype CEO Tony Bates will still be head of the Skype team and current employees will remain in the positions they have now.

Many Skype features may now be added to a good amount of Microsoftâ€™s various products, an extra benefit for consumers affected by the purchase. What exact Microsoft products that will have the new features are unknown as of yet.

The process of buying Skype is still under way in a few countries. These countries include Russia and Taiwan.

An estimated 170 million Skype users will still be able to access the original voice and video call service, as well as the instant messaging component.

Microsoftâ€™s Windows Phone 7 may see future integration with Skype technologies. Also, because Microsoft owns 1.6 percent of Facebook, the social network users may see more enforcement for the use of Skype. The purchase may also mean that programs like Microsoft Outlook may let users call contacts from their address books in the future.