Microsoft has agreed to purchase Skype for $8.5 Billion dollars

Microsoft has agreed to purchase Skype for $8.5 Billion dollars.
The sale is subject to regulatory approval. Microsoft expects approval by the end of this year.
This purchase will give the world's largest software maker a new conferencing platform.

Skype currently has 170 Million users worldwide. Microsoft believes it can attract hundreds of millions of additional users by integrating Skype with it's wide range of products such as Windows, Outlook, Microsoft Mobile and their XBox gaming systems.

Microsoft already has a product similar to Skype, in Windows Live. Skype has a much larger user base and works across platforms.

Microsoft could also incorporate Skype into it's business video conferencing software.
Skype to Skype calls are currently free and Skype to landline or cell phones are offered at a low cost.

This has allowed Skype to offer alternatives to traditional phone companies and offers a cost savings to its users. This has allowed Skype to become the largest provider of international calling services in the world.

This purchase by Microsoft is the largest in the company's 36 year history.

Skype was founded in 2003 by Scandinavian entrepreneurs Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom.
Before founding Skype, they created the file sharing program, Kazaa.

Allen Lowder 5/10/11

Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions.

Microsoft Dynamics is comprised of the following software:

Customer Relationship Management
· Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Enterprise resource planning
· Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta)
· Microsoft Dynamics GP(formerly Great Plains)
· Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision)
· Microsoft Dynamics SL (formerly Solomon)

Retail management
· Microsoft Dynamics – Point of Sale
· Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) (formerly QuickSell)

Office Business Applications (OBAs)
· Microsoft Dynamics Snap

Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows.

Silverlight will compete with Adobe Flash and the presentation components of Ajax. It also competes with Sun Microsystems' JavaFX, which was launched a few days after Silverlight.

Version 1.1 will include a complete version of the .NET Common Language Runtime, named CoreCLR, so that Silverlight applications can be written in any .NET language.

Links and info:
Get Silverlight
Wikipedia Entry
Silverlight Homepage

Microsoft Surface

Surface computing has arrived.
http://www.surface.com/


After you have seen the new Microsoft Surface, you can appreciate the parody below :)


Microsoft Surface Parody
http://www.sarcasticgamer.com/2007/06/ms-surface-how-we-would-have-done-it.html