Well...so I might as well do a mea-culpa and confess my shortcomings to Sir Gates and the MSFT team. I must admit, at first, the $8.5B price tag seemed astronomical and it seemed that you were throwing shareholder's equity at a problem that needs to be solved with innovation.
But now, with the prospect of doing 'deep' integration with Facebook, your bet seems very prescient. Even if it was non-intentional, i.e. if you guys had no idea that Google would release Hangout, but talk about great timing.
If Microsoft can successfully integrate Skype into Facebook and expand their userbase even 2X, that's kinda staggering given the baseline number of 130 million they would be starting from.
All of a sudden the price seems like a bargain, if they can pull off something like this.
But now, with the prospect of doing 'deep' integration with Facebook, your bet seems very prescient. Even if it was non-intentional, i.e. if you guys had no idea that Google would release Hangout, but talk about great timing.
If Microsoft can successfully integrate Skype into Facebook and expand their userbase even 2X, that's kinda staggering given the baseline number of 130 million they would be starting from.
All of a sudden the price seems like a bargain, if they can pull off something like this.