One response to “Microsoft offers $8.5 B for What?”

1. 

   rc primak May 12th, 2011 at 12:55

   Two words explain the worth of Skype to Microsoft: consumer userbase. This is not about the business side of Microsoft — it is all about Social Networking (in the sense of Microsoft Live Everything and the Social ID associated with this area of Microsoft’s operations).

   These are consumer offerings, and as such, security and privacy are secondary or lower concerns at most. Live ID can leak as much personal info as it wants, and Skype can be a Backdoor as much as it wants. These are not business apps, and like kinect, they are aimed at lowly plebes like me — home users. Our online safety is not a big concern for Microsoft.

   Windows 8 will be a gigantic flop in the home user market if Google comes out with a partner for a Google-OS Tablet device with a 10-inch touchscreen before Windows 8 hits the laptop market. And if Google can convince consumers that it really cares about security, they can leave Microsoft in the dust as a consumer products company. MS buying Skype would then look like a pyrrhic victory at best.

   Plenty to watch in the coming months.