--- title: Can Microsoft Put Its $8.5B Skype Purchase to Work? | TIME description: With an $8.5 billion purchase price, Microsoft will likely integrate Skype wherever it can. Here's a look at what we might expect. canonical: https://time.com/video/TteVhnyo/ og:title: Can Microsoft Put Its $8.5B Skype Purchase to Work? og:description: With an $8.5 billion purchase price, Microsoft will likely integrate Skype wherever it can. Here's a look at what we might expect. og:url: https://time.com/video/TteVhnyo/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TteVhnyo/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can Microsoft Put Its $8.5B Skype Purchase to Work? twitter:description: With an $8.5 billion purchase price, Microsoft will likely integrate Skype wherever it can. Here's a look at what we might expect. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TteVhnyo/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Can Microsoft Put Its $8.5B Skype Purchase to Work? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Can Microsoft Put Its $8.5B Skype Purchase to Work? [Watch (HLS stream): Can Microsoft Put Its $8.5B Skype Purchase to Work?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TteVhnyo.m3u8) (2:00)  _Published 2011-05-12. With an $8.5 billion purchase price, Microsoft will likely integrate Skype wherever it can. Here's a look at what we might expect._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:13 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Skype Interview With Governor of Puerto Rico](/video/DzzE6jkM/) ### Skype Interview With Governor of Puerto Rico [Verizon to Purchase Yahoo for $4.83 Billion](/video/aqUeFj9e/) ### Verizon to Purchase Yahoo for $4.83 Billion [Know Right Now: Microsoft Perfecting Skype Translator](/video/jUJxjUtg/) ### Know Right Now: Microsoft Perfecting Skype Translator --- ## Transcript What? Who? Microsoft? For how much? 8. 5 billion. I happen to have a check written out to Skype for 8. 5 billion right here. Well, that's certainly a monkey wrench in my plans. So. What am I gonna do with the [ INAUDIBLE ]? I, I don't know, I just got money burning a whole in my pocket, I guess. Mm- hm. Donate it. You, you say silly things, when you talk. Yeah, I, I'll make a video, I'll do like a little explainer of it, and that'll be it. Yeah. Life goes on. At its most basic level, Skype is software has been developed to handle voice calls, video chatting, and instant messaging over the internet. You can also do things with it like conference calls, call forwarding, file sharing, and a bunch of other cool tricks, most of which are free. And looking at some of Microsoft's larger business entities, we have things like Windows, Microsoft Office, Xbox 360, and the recently launched Windows Phone 7 mobile platform. So let's see how Skype would fit into those. With Windows, we've got Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger instant messaging program, which basically does the same thing Skype does right now. So I'd expect Microsoft to pretty much merge the two programs, which will add some 700 million Skype subscribers overnight. The latest version of Microsoft Office is big on group collaboration features. So expect to see Skype used as one of the main forms of communicating updates and changes to your team members in Microsoft Word, for instance. And as for the Outlook email program, we'll probably see Skype as a means of instantly responding to emails via voice, instant messenger, video chat. Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming console already has several Skype- like features built in, so we'll likely see a fair amount of merging there as well. Video chatting via the new Kinect camera already exists; so that will likely expand to include your Skype contacts. As will voice chatting over compatible headset. And instant messaging with the Xbox 360 chat pad accessory. Free for instance. And finally Windows Phone 7, pretty straight forward. Skype will handle video conferencing for phones with front facing cameras, instant messaging, it could be used for cheap international calls by the internet too. We'll probably see pretty deep integration with contact management, email features too. Since Windows Phone 7 uses mobile versions of Microsoft Office products. Look at that camera. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Can Microsoft Put Its $8.5B Skype Purchase to Work?","description":"With an $8.5 billion purchase price, Microsoft will likely integrate Skype wherever it can. 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