My Two Bits on Microsoft buying Skype

Depending on who’s expert advice you read there’s a case that Microsoft buying Skype was a good thing for everyone or the biggest waste of money. You can read the Pro argument here and the Con argument here. So I want to know what real essence of this deal is about. Why did Steve Ballmer throw billions of dollars for Skype?The other thing I want to know is did Bill Gates approve the deal personally, was he willing to let Ballmer have the ball on this one, and if the deal falls flat Bill can blame Steve for a bad idea and can him altogether? I’m merely speculating here. But it would be a very expensive bad idea, so there has to be something more here than meets the eye. Microsoft is a software company and the technology that Skype has is nothing that Microsoft couldn’t self cough upon its own, excuse me I meant to say create. So the only other thing of value here is the company name. But that’s a huge chunk of change to pay out for naming rights. In the end I find it hard to phantom how Microsoft is aiming to make a profit off this company that basically provided a free service.

Those are my Two Bits...............Eric