In its biggest acquisition of Skype in $8.5 billion, Microsoft would be expecting to reinvigorate its business prospects. After facing slow growth in its generic business of software development because of slower growth in PCs segment and rough experience in other business like search engine, smart phone where it lost the ground to Google and Apple, now with Skype’s acquisition-which has 170 million active user base- Microsoft is looking for new Vistas of growth.
What makes this acquisition so special for Microsoft is that it has out-paced Google and Facebook claim which, too, were watering for Skype. Now what makes this ‘relationship’ dicey is the synergy word, which earlier could not be fruitful with eBay who owned 30% stake in Sype. As it was not enough for Microsoft’s woes Google with GoogleVoice and Apple with Apple’s Facetime are ready to give tough challenge to Microsoft in this new vertical of ‘voice business’.
If we go by potential synergy, Facebook with its strong base of 700 million+ users who might be the huge beneficiary of this Voice-over-Internet service and Google with its existing similar service named Google Voice (though in the U.S.A still) should have been the ‘rational’ acquirer. But the money quotient of ‘meager’ $3.4 billion purposed (as per market speculation) was not attractive enough for Skype’s shareholder to be fallen in the hand of Mark Zuckerberg or Sergey Bin for that matter.
Google has missed the second opportunity after Groupon- where it bid for this deal-of-the-day-site at $6 billion, which is now going to be the $25 billion entity once it will come up with its most waited IPO as per market analysts.
Now I am very sure about the leadership of Larry Page and Sergey Bin as they are successfully diversifying Google while keeping its dominance in search business too, but the stewardship of Steeve Balmer has keeping destroying the share, margin, market cap and revenue of Microsoft since he has been heading the world’s biggest software giant. Steve Ballmer replaced Bill Gates as CEO of the Microsoft in 2000, at that time the company’s market cap was $586.2 billion making it the top companies in the world. But to any surprise in the ten year since Ballmer is heading the Microsoft, its M-Cap in first quarter of 2011 was only $238.99 billion.
Consider APPLE, which did not even manage to grab a place in the top 500 list based on the Mkt-Cap in 2000. And to its investor’s delight and analysts’ surprise, it has immensely grown over decade even surpassed the Microsoft with Mkt-cap of as per January, 2011 a whopping $300 billion.
So this is not about the Skype’s future, or for that matter Google, Facebook, or Apple’s, it is the question of shareholder’s money of Microsoft and capabilities of Ballmer how he is going to milk this Skype to arrange the more tasty bread-and-butter not only for its investors but employees too!!!!
