Skype is officially part of Microsoft now, deal finalized

Skype joins Microsoft under a new division headed by Skype CEO Tony Bates. British born Bates assumes a new title as president of the Skye division. Microsoft’s finalization follows U.S. and EU regulatory approval. Microsoft formally closed its acquisition of Skype on Friday, meaning the video-chat service is now a division of the software giant.

---

Microsoft is promising to integrate Microsoft products to increase Skype’s reach. Skype employees will continued to be located in their offices around the world, including Russia, the UK, Hong Kong and the United States. Microsoft and Skype complement one another because both are "disruptive, innovative, software-oriented companies," Bates said in a video message (below).
Microsoft originally announced its plans to purchase Skype back in May. The deal is valued at $8.5 billion and will see Skype integrate closely into Microsoft as an organization and service. "Skype is a phenomenal product and brand that is loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The software giant is expected to integrate Skype support into Xbox, Windows Phone, Kinect, Outlook and Lync. The support will bring a compelling audio and video service to Microsoft’s various products.

Bates will now become president of Microsoft's Skype division, reporting to Ballmer. At this point, it will be business as usual, but down the line, Skype will be integrated into a variety of Microsoft products.

The announcement comes about a week after the European Commission approved the Skype-Microsoft deal, concluding that combining the two companies would not significantly affect competition.

"In the area of consumer communications, the investigation found that the parties' activities mainly overlap for video communications, where Microsoft is active through its Windows Live Messenger. However, the Commission considers that there are no competition concerns in this growing market where numerous players, including Google, are present," the EU said in a statement.

Microsoft has just officially announced that the deal to acquire Skype for $8.5 billion, first announced on May 10, 2011, has closed. According to the press release:

Skype CEO Tony Bates will assume the title of president of the Skype Division of Microsoft immediately, reporting directly to Ballmer. The Skype division will continue to offer its current products to millions of users globally. In recent months, Skype has added video calling to a number of Android phones and released an iPad app, but also battled a mid-summer outage.

Tony Bates on Microsoft's Acquisition of Skype