In the war for Skype, was Microsoft the only true contender? It was rumored before the announcement of the purchase of Skype by Microsoft that Google and Facebook were also interested in the platform. But, how serious were those offers?
According to Allthingsd, those offers were not serious at all. It appears that Microsoft was the only company who made an offer serious enough for Skype to even consider being acquired. Allthingsd states:
While Andreessen declined to talk about others, sources said there were no serious ones beyond initial flirting, except for Microsoft. Not Google and not Facebook.
While Google and Facebook appear to have made offers, Microsoft was the only company to make a competitive bid for the company. But one must wonder, if Google and Facebook did not make serious bids, is it possible that this big names were used to help drive up the price of Microsoft's bid? While we may not ever know the answer to that, Microsoft will acquire the company for 8.5 billion dollars provided they receive regulatory approval.
This is not the first time Skype has been acquired by a major corporation. Skype was bought by eBay, but that acquisition never achieved its full potential and eBay eventually removed Skype from its portfolio. While Microsoft will likely avoid the issues eBay faced because of its breadth of products, any acquisition of this size takes time and the future is not guaranteed.
31 Comments - Add comment