Microsoft blew $8.5 billion on Skype only to spend 14 years killing it

Skype will be closed down in May 2025, but it really died in 2011 when it was bought by Microsoft. It's just been a death by a thousand slow-motion cuts.How we used to live. This is Skype on the Mac back in prehistoryYou didn't know Skype was still a thing, and in a few weeks' time, it won't be. Once a revolutionary app that brought free voice calls over the internet, it was important enough and valuable enough that in 2006, eBay bought it for $2.6 billion.If it seems peculiar that eBay would be the one that bought it, give the auction site some credit — it flipped the service and sold Skype on in 2011 for a huge profit. Five years is a long time to have it on 'Buy it Now,' but Microsoft eventually snapped it up for $8.5 billion. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums