Skype Technologies
| Skype Technologies SA
|
|
|---|---|
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|
| legal form | Société anonyme |
| founding | 2003 |
| Reason for dissolution | Takeover by Microsoft |
| Seat | Luxembourg |
| sales | $ 551 million (2008) |
| Branch | telecommunications |
| Website | www.skype.com |
Skype Technologies SA was an internet telephony company with headquarters in Luxembourg and offices in England and Estonia . It successfully developed and operated the Skype program and thus became the world's largest provider of Internet telephony . In 2011 Microsoft bought Skype Technologies.
In fiscal 2004, Skype had sales of $ 7 million. In April 2010 it had 560 million users worldwide.
Company history
Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis , who had previously become known through the Kazaa music exchange .
In September 2005, the Internet auction house eBay began negotiations to purchase Skype. The takeover was official on October 14, 2005 . The purchase price was $ 4.1 billion. Half of that was paid in eBay stocks. In addition, there were potential performance-related additional payments of around $ 1.5 billion that were due in 2008 or 2009. Skype remained an independent company, but should open up new business areas with eBay. This included both advertising and the sale of ring tones and a collaboration with the payment service PayPal , which eBay bought in 2002 for $ 1.5 billion.
It was reported that Skype was losing money, at least in 2007 and continuing into 2010 ($ 7 million).
On May 10, 2011, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Skype for $ 8.5 billion, which was completed on October 13, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 560 million users: Skype bigger than Facebook. In: IT Times . April 30, 2010, accessed February 5, 2018 .
- ↑ https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/eBay-aid-bis-zu-3-3-Millionen-Euro-fuer-Skype-129484.html - Heise notification dated September 12, 2005 about the purchase from Skype through eBay
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen-maerkte/die-risiken-der-skype-uebernahme-466035/
- ↑ Microsoft completed takeover of Skype. Microsoft, October 14, 2011, accessed October 24, 2011 .
Web links
Wikinews: Category: Skype - in the news- http://www.skype.com/ - Company website