It's official: Microsoft announces $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype

Microsoft has announced that they have officially acquired Skype for a sum of $8.5 billion. The company announced the deal on Twitter saying, "It's a done deal. @Skype is now part of @Microsoft!". A few minutes before that they had put a 'teaser' tweet which said, "Hey @Skype: Should we do this thing?"

Microsoft initially announced the acquisition in May, and the European Commission approved the deal on 8 October, saying it would not significantly impede competition in Europe.

[caption id="attachment_107639" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Screen grab from the Skype homepage"][/caption]A statement issued by Microsoft said, "Microsoft and Skype will remain focused on their shared goal of connecting all people across all devices and accelerating both companies' efforts to transform real-time communications for consumers and enterprise customers. The completion of the acquisition also marks the official introduction of Skype as a new business division within Microsoft."

The statement added that Skype CEO Tony Bates would assume the title of president of the Skype Division of Microsoft immediately, reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The company added that Skype would be integrated across an array of Microsoft products to broaden Skype's reach and accelerate its growth as a fundamental way people communicate online.

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Meanwhile Bates issued an independent statement on the acquisition saying, "This represents a huge leap forward in Skype's mission to be the communications choice for a billion people every day."

The acquisition remains under review in a few countries.