Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) acquired Skype earlier this year for $8.5 billion. The acquisition process is still underway, and once competed, Skype will become a business division in Microsoft and integrated into Microsoft’s products like Windows 8, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox. With Skype’s calling and messaging solutions, Microsoft’s products will compete with Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Mac OS X and iOS, Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android and RIM’s (NASDAQ:RIMM) Blackberry. Last week, Skype announced that it had acquired a group messaging service, GroupMe, for an amount rumored to be around $85 million. [1]
How Skype’s GroupMe Buy Helps Microsoft
Skype is the most popular VOIP service in the world, which can be used for making voice and video calls as well as messaging. It will soon be integrated with Windows Phone 7, Xbox and Windows 8, providing a seamless communication system for its users. It will compete with technologies like Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage and RIM’s Blackberry Messenger among other applications.
Skype’s current revenues are just a drop in the bucket compared to Microsoft’s total revenues, and we estimate that it comprises less than 2% of the Trefis price estimate for Microsoft. However, GroupMe will allow Skype to gain a foothold in the increasingly popular group messaging niche and improve the social layer in Windows Phone 7 and Xbox. It will also help Microsoft gain more users for each of its services and products, including Skype, Windows Phone 7, Windows 8 and Xbox Live.
Check out our complete price analysis for Microsoft
Notes:- Skype buys GroupMe and adds group messaging, GigaOm, August 21, 2011 [↩]
