Does Skype Need Another Daddy?
Reuters broke the news last night that social networking titan Facebook may just be buying Skype. A source reportedly said that CEO Mark Zuckerberg is amidst deep talks about buying Skype. This multi-billion deal would be valued at $3 billion to $4 billion, but, it’s important that Skype’s IPO is still scheduled for the second quarter of this year. The public offering is expected by analysts to raise about $1 billion.
Either way though, it’s pretty safe to assume the two companies are planning something big down the road.
“Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has been involved in internal discussions about buying Skype, according to one of the sources. Another source said Facebook had reached out to the Luxembourg-based company about forming a joint venture.”
It seems that Google is also involved, and one undisclosed person familiar with the matter said that Google is also in talks for some sort of joint venture with Skype.
It seems that everything is blurry for now, but such partnership – especially with players such as Facebook and Google – are really important not for Skype to expand its access points, especially when it comes down to its social reach.
A couple of weeks ago, Skype made some progress in yet another area, releasing a fix to its Android app. An Android Police writer revealed a vulnerability, a data leak, which had affected roughly 10 million users of the Android version of Skype to date. Skype released an update, which featured enhanced security as well as a within the U.S user-to-user 3G calling functionality.
Earlier, the company’s video networking service designed for educators dubbed Skype in the Classroom officially rolled out of beta. This offering enables teachers and those working in the education sector to communicate with other teachers across the globe.
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