Skype Fires Execs., Will it Help Microsoft Get New Customers?
Last week, Microsoft obtained the Federal Trade Commission's U.S. antitrust approval to acquire the VoIP company Skype. On Monday, Skype confirmed that it had fired several of its key executive members.
Firing not only the VPs, David Gurle, Christopher Dean, Russ Shaw and Don Albert, but the marketing and human resources heads as well quickly triggered the question, what's going on in Skype, or better yet, Microsoft?
According to Bloomberg, three people familiar with this issue commented that the letting go of these 8 executives was more a move about "reducing the value of their payout", or to allow Skype and Microsoft to save money in other words. If they had stayed after the deal closed, then their stock options would've been valued much higher.
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A Skype spokesman on the other hand told Bloomberg, that "due to internal shifts in an attempt to reassess and develop the best products for users, management changes have taken place."
The underlying motive still remains unclear.
What is less unclear however is Microsoft's motive behind acquiring Skype.
Although, Microsoft has not officially announced its future plans with the Luxemburg-based company, many speculate that Microsoft's fixation onto the revenue-losing internet phone company, according to Reuters, is based on the necessity to acquire more Windows and Office software customers-Skype is popular among small and medium sized companies, a perfect target audience for Microsoft's software-in addition to aggregating value to its take on mobile communication, the Windows Phone 7 which Microsoft hopes Skype will enhance.
In 2003 Skype was established by founder Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In 2005, Skype was sold to EBay for $2.6 billion and in 2009, private equity group Silver Lake bought a 70 stake from EBay, for $2 billion.
Finally in early May this year, Microsoft acquired to buy Skype for $8.5 billion dollars. Many agreed this amount to be exorbitant for such company but good news arrived for Microsoft as comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, recently published a report showing a 134% jump in Skype's U.S. internet traffic between the months of April and May, just about the time Microsoft announced it would purchase Skype.
