微软85亿美元并购Skype

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Microsoft To Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion

微软85亿美元并购Skype

posted by Thom Holwerda on Tue 10th May 2011 08:19 UTC, submitted by porcel

发表于：2011年5月9日 北京时间16:19

So, the biggest acquisition in Microsoft's history. The Wall Street Journal reports - and it has been confirmed - that Microsoft and Skype will announce today that Redmond will buy Skype for $8.5 billion. That's a lot of money for a company that hasn't ever actually made any profits.

这，将会是微软历史上最大的一个并购。由华尔街日报报道，并已被证实——微软和Skype将于今日宣布，Redmond（微软总部）将以85亿美元并购Skype。这对于一个事实上尚未获得任何盈利的企业来说，真的是很大一笔钱。

Skype already has a history of being bought. The project and company was founded back in 2003 by the same guys who did Kazaa, only to be bought up by eBay for $2.6 billion back in 2005. eBay didn't really know what to do with it though, so they sold a 70% stake to a group of technology investors in 2009.

Skype有过一段被并购的历史。该工程与该公司于2003年被以同样方式收购过Kazaa（一款世界著名的p2p软件，采用 fasttrack协议）的同一集团买回，最终被eBay于2005年以26亿美元收购。eBay当时不甚了解如何处置它，于是于2009年出售了其 70%股份给一批技术投资商。

And now, Microsoft is swooping in, even though both Google and Facebook were reportedly interested in buying the VoIP software company. It all seems a bit strange, though, since Skype never actually made any profits, and has a rather massive long-term debt ($686 million of the $8.5 billion). Still, Skype is a recognised brand the world over, and has 663 million subscribers. And, it's pretty much impossible for Microsoft to make Skype's interface on Windows worse than it already is, so there's that.

而今，微软涉足进来，尽管同时有着Google 和 Facebook对并购该VoIP软件公司虎视眈眈。这一切看起来很离奇， Skype事实上从未有过盈利，而且有相当一大笔长期债务（6.86亿美元）。不过，Skype是一个举世公认的品牌，拥有6.63亿注册用户。而且，要 微软把Skype在Windows上的界面弄得比当前还糟，看也是相当不可能的了。于是有了这一桩事。

It will be interesting to see what, exactly, Microsoft's plans are for Skype. Due to carriers being notoriously averse to VoIP as it threatens their business model, I don't think Skype will be integrated into Windows Phone 7. A more likely target will be to integrate it into Windows itself, most likely for tablets too. Skype runs on many operating systems already - iOS, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, Windows - so it would give them a pretty universal VoIP solution from the get-go.

看看微软到底对Skype有何计划将是一件十分有趣的事。移动运营商因VoIP威胁到了他们的商业模式而对Skype久已怀恨已是明显的事实； 我不认为Skype会被集成到WinPhone 7上。一个更可能的目标将会是将其集成到Windows本身，集成到平板电脑更有可能。Skype已经在许多操作系统上运行了——iOS, Mac OS X, Linux, Android, Windows——它为它们提供了一个相当统一的VoIP解决方案的开端。

Of course, assuming Microsoft is interested in properly maintaining the Linux version at all. Not that Skype itself has had much love for Linux, but at least Skype ran on Linux (somewhat), and now with Microsoft at the helm, I'm not so sure that's going to last.

当然，我们仍假设微软会愿意好好地维护Skype的Linux版本。不因为Skype本身曽给过Linux许多的重视，但至少Skype曽运行在Linux之上，现在又微软掌握。我不确定它的Linux版本是否会继续发展。

英文原文：http://www.osnews.com/story/24718/Microsoft_To_Acquire_Skype_for_8_5_Billion
译文原文：http://www.linux-ren.org/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=72
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