Microsoft has confirmed that it will buy off Internet phone service provider Skype for $8.5bn in cash. This deal will be the largest ever acquisition for Microsoft, who are looking for all means to extend their network platform, but ironically have not bought any company in the past 5 years. Skype, founded in 2003, is based in Luxembourg, and has 663mn users worldwide, It is currently owned by eBay and a few other private investors. Though, even with its wide user-base, Skype has not been able to churn out profits, and in the year 2010, their revenue was $860mn, with a net loss of around $7mn. This is something Microsoft will look to turnaround, along with integrating it within itself to better its own services worldwide.
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