Microsoft to Pay $8.5 Billion in Cash for Skype

Big money, to the tune of $8.5 billion, was on the table and Skype took it all, from Microsoft. With the deep pockets that come from being a company named Microsoft Corp., the amount paid is astounding, but not unimaginable. In fact, Microsoft paid $6 billion in 2007 to buy aQuantive, an online advertising company. And that’s to say nothing of Microsoft’s “withdrawn” $48 billion offer to buy Yahoo in 2008. The current all-cash deal will likely be finalized before the end of the year; the buy’s currently awaiting regulatory approval.

Tony Bates, Skype Global’s sitting chief of staff, will continue to be at the helm of Skype as it transforms into the new Microsoft Skype Division. He had the following to say about the deal: “Together, we will be able to accelerate Skype’s plans to extend our global community and introduce new ways for everyone to communicate and collaborate.” Silver Lake Partners leads the investment group that owns Skype.

The buy comes after years of Microsoft trying to become “a verb” as Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, most pointedly said recently. Without mentioning verb-y Google, Mr. Ballmer let it be known that Microsoft was very pleased to be able to acquire a platform that comes joined to millions of dedicated and active users. He’s right about that — on average, Skype has 107 million users per month whose connection time totals more than 100 minutes.

Finally, Steven Ballmer also said that his company’s consumers should soon expect to see Skype’s technology for voice and video make an appearance in well-known Microsoft products. Plans for expanding Skype’s business and revenue are clearly in the works.

Read More:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/microsoft-buys-skype-for-85-billion-.html

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/microsoft-to-buy-skype-for-8-5-billion/?ref=technology

New Deal: Japanese GREE Buys American OpenFeint

The announcement came last night that GREE, Japan’s biggest social networking service paid $104 million to buy OpenFeint, a social gaming platform that lets users add friends, view friends’ activities, and participate in forums and chats. Yoshikazu Tanaka is GREE’s founder and CEO.

News outlets are reporting that OpenFeint’s own CEO, Jason Citron will not lose his leadership position. Also, “his team will remain in place.” The Wall Street Journal says there will be no “merging” of services, instead, the two entities will collaborate through application sharing and the joint development of projects. Perhaps more to the point, they’re saying that by coming together they hope two heads will, indeed, be better than one.

OpenFeint is based in Burlingame, CA and GREE International recently opened an office in San Francisco. In a released statement, Yoshikazu Tanaka said concerning the deal: “We are socializing the next evolution of games and, as the best-in-class US-based mobile social network, OpenFeint is the ideal partner for us to offer the best mobile social games to the largest global audience.”

Finally, it’s also reported that through the deal, GREE will speed along OpenFeint’s outstanding growth and also get its outstanding securities. The two companies are envisioning the development of a “global ecosystem” for social gaming and networking.

Read more:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=87553#ixzz1KIMULU9v

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110421-719144.html