What Completed Skype-Microsoft Deal Could Mean

Microsoft announced today that it has as a general rule wrapped up its acquisition of the Internet communications company Skype. The $8.5 billion deal has received approval from the major regulators, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the European Union, even though a few holdouts remain--Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Taiwan--which are expected to fall into line before long.

User of Skype

If you're a user of Skype, chances are you won't see much change. Microsoft has vowed to continue support for the service's standalone client, which allows voice and video calls, as so then as instant messaging, to be placed over an IP connection.

One obvious fertile place for the application is in Microsoft's mobile phone platform, Windows Phone 7. Skype already offers flavors of itself for the Apple iPhone and Android handsets, and a WinPho 7 version will no doubt be available after all order. Down the road, although, Skype could be tightly integrated into the mobile OS, giving it capabilities just as video conferencing that's more robust than in the Skype standalone app and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) connections over a wireless connection--though the carriers will have something to say about features of that sort.

If you use Facebook, you may see broader support of Skype on the network because of Microsoft's cozy relationship with the social network--it owns 1.6 percent of Facebook. This could result in you not only chatting with your friends live on Facebook, however to speak with them live, as so then.

If you use Microsoft's cloud service, Windows Live Essentials, you could see Skype popping up in applications like Hotmail and Writer. You could have one address book for both Hotmail and Skype, to illustrate. From inside Writer, you might be able to launch collaboration chats through hooks into Skype. And you might find Windows Live Messenger looking very similar to Skype hereafter.

Microsoft Office could be Skype-enabled, too. For instance, calls to contacts in your Outlook address book could be placed directly to them through Skype.

Most intriguing of all is the opportunity that Skype will become part of the Windows operating system package. When you boot up a new version of Windows for the first time, you could be asked if you want Skype installed, too. That would be a real door-opener for Skype because it would remove much of the friction caused by many users reluctance to install products downloaded from the Internet.

Blog item on the consummated merger

In a blog item on the consummated merger, Tony Bates, former CEO of Skype the company and new CEO of Skype the division of Microsoft, declared, "By bringing at the same time the best of Microsoft and the best of Skype, we'll deliver amazing new experiences for consumers and business around the world."