Floundering Skype to be saved by Bill Gates?

May 24, 2011 - PRLog -- It is no secret that Skype has been struggling to make ends meet. What did come as a surprise is Microsoft’s takeover of the floundering communications service. Last week Microsoft agreed to buy Skype for £5.2 bn/$8.5bn, making it Microsoft’s largest ever deal.

Skype has been sold several times in recent years.  In 2006 it was bought by eBay who sold 70% of the company for as comparatively little as $2bn three years ago. The majority shares were bought by Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowit. The acquisition of Skype this time rattled the stock market with eBay’s stocks up a few percent with Microsoft’s suffering with a 0.5% dip.

Bill Gates has backed his company’s takeover of Skype and has urged other board members to get behind the initiative. He has stated on the BBC’s website that he “was a strong proponent at the board level for the deal being done." Since this statement he has further confirmed that he has always supported Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype.

Skype is an absolutely huge service used by in excess of 663 million people worldwide. Skype offers the outstanding service of allowing users to speak to loved ones for free online via text, microphone and video whilst charging low rates for international and mobile calls.

Skype is set to become a new wing of Microsoft aimed at improving their video conferencing capabilities. Head of Skype Tony Bates will continue to head up the communications company under Microsoft’s rule.  

Experts at Pretium Ventures have questioned the high price tag of Skype as it was valued at just over $2.5bn a few months ago. It can only mean that computer guru Bill Gates has a grand plan for the use of Skype which will most likely be unveiled with the next instalment of Windows. There have also been murmurs of merging Skype’s conferencing capabilities with Xbox user technology in addition to repackaging it for business purposes.

The potential of Microsoft and Skype’s combined technological faculties could produce some astonishing results. When you also consider the number of users that Microsoft will now have access to, you can begin to see why they paid over the odds for a company that doesn’t turn a profit.

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About Pretium Ventures:
Pretium Ventures is a Hong Kong based investment firm that specializes in promoting successful growth of young companies. As a venture Capital firm Pretium Ventures is unique in their client centric approach to supporting the growth of businesses as well as their ability to cater to small to medium sized individual and institutional investors.

http://www.pretiumventures.com