Who'll win Skype Race - Microsoft $8b, Facebook or Google?

Washington, May 10: The software giant Microsoft has offered $8.5 billion to buy Skype, the internet video conferencing service, making it the biggest bid by the Windows maker.

A report in the Wall Street Journal revealed that Microsoft is in talks with Skype and the deal will be announced soon. Earlier, citing some inside sources, various media reported Microsoft's plan to acquire Skype.

The acquisition of Skype will help Microsoft to boom in the smartphone market, where it faces high competition from Google and Apple. Despite high marketing, Microsoft's Bing search engine is still struggling to catch up with Google and the smartphone operating system Windows Phone 7 has not yet become dearer to smartphone lovers.

After teaming up with Nokia, Microsoft made an alliance with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) to offer Bing as the default search engine on BlackBerry devices. Microsoft is also mulling a plan to acquire RIM.

Presently, around 124 million people use Skype services in a month and it holds around 23 million concurrent users at busiest times. It offers low-cost calls and video conferencing than any other mobile carriers.

The social networking mammoth Facebook and Android maker Google also have an eye on Skype. Rumor mills reports claimed that both the rivals have talked with Skype to start a joint venture. Now, the race to buy Skype has turned similar to an Olympiad event with all the big stars competing each other for the gold. Let's wait and see the big winner of the Skype Race.

OneIndia News