 | This article needs to be updated. (July 2024) |
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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Founder | Janus Friis Niklas Zennström |
| Headquarters | Luxembourg |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Deepak Kashyap |
| Products | Videotelephony Online chat Business VoIP |
| Revenue | 185,000,000 United States dollar (2009)  |
Number of employees |  788 (2010) |
| Parent | Microsoft (2011-present) |
| Subsidiaries | GroupMe |
| Website | skype.com |
Skype Technologies (also known as Skype Software, Skype Communications, Skype Inc., and Skype Limited) is a telecommunications company headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, whose chief business is the manufacturing and marketing of the video chat and instant messaging computer software program Skype, and various Internet telephony services associated with it.[1] Microsoft purchased the company in 2011, and it has since then operated as their wholly owned subsidiary;[2] as of 2016, it is operating as part of Microsoft's Office Product Group. The company is a société à responsabilité limitée, or SARL, equivalent to an American limited liability company.
Skype, a voice over IP (VoIP) service, was first released in 2003 as a way to make free computer-to-computer calls, or reduced-rate calls from a computer to telephones. Support for paid services such as calling landline/mobile phones from Skype (formerly called SkypeOut), allowing landlines and mobile phones to call Skype (formerly called SkypeIn and now Skype Number), and voice messaging generates the majority of Skype's revenue.
eBay acquired Skype Technologies S.A. in September 2005 and in April 2009 announced plans to spin it off in a 2010 initial public offering (IPO).[3] In September 2009,[4] Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board announced the acquisition of 65% of Skype for $1.9 billion from eBay, valuing the business at $2.75 billion. Skype was acquired by Microsoft in May 2011 for $8.5 billion (~$11.4 billion in 2023).
As of 2010, Skype is available in 27 languages and has 660 million worldwide users, an average of over 100 million active each month,[5] and has faced challenges to its intellectual property amid political concerns by governments wishing to control telecommunications systems within their borders.
- ^ "About Skype". Skype. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ "Microsoft confirms takeover of Skype". BBC. 10 May 2011. Retrieved 3 October 2014.
- ^ "EBay to buy Skype in $2.6bn deal". BBC. 12 September 2005. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Canada Pension plan buys Skype stake | Toronto Star". Thestar.com. 2 September 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
- ^ "Profile: How Skype connected". BBC News. 10 May 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2011.