Microsoft is buying Skype!!

Microsoft has confirmed it will buy the internet phone service Skype. The $8.5 billion deal will connect Microsoft with the 663 million people around the world who use Skype. It is the most money Microsoft has spent to buy another company.

Report
One is the giant business, whose software powers more than 90% of the world's computers. The other is the firm, which has revolutionised the way many communicate. Now Skype is being swallowed up by Microsoft.

It's just eight years since Skype started helping people to make calls over the internet for nothing, and this is the third time it's been bought and sold.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/05/110511_witn_skype_page.shtml

What is Skype?
Founded in 2003 and based in Luxembourg, our purpose is to break down barriers to communication. Skype is owned by an investor group led by Silver Lake and which includes eBay Inc, Joltid Limited and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz.

Skype had an average of 145 million connected users per month in the fourth quarter of 2010. Skype users made 207 billion minutes of voice and video calls in 2010, approximately 42% of which was video.