While Microsoft's acquisition of Skype is underway, you might be wondering about the acquisition Skype made earlier this year. Yes, I am talking about Qik, the mobile video streaming service which was bought for $121 million earlier this year.
It has been confirmed that Microsoft will get Qik as a bonus in the whole deal. On inquiring with MS representatives, we were pointed to an earlier blog post by Tony Bates about the the technologies that Qik was bringing to Skype.
Skype will have its own division within Microsoft and integration with the Windows Phone platform will be a key focus. Skype has apps for Android, iOS and Windows Mobile and so does Qik, so it seems they will do more than an app for Windows Phone, integrating video chat capabilities deep into the OS itself. Quoting Bates from a conference :
Mobile is clearly moving to be a rich communications capability above and beyond just voice. We introduced two-way video recently in terms of our iPhone products and our Android products, and we’ll work together with Microsoft to keep enhancing and enriching those, and you can see just how much video is going to dominate the traffic as we look for the next few years. It’s one of the fastest-growing parts of the industry, and Skype’s well-positioned.
While only time will tell how beneficial this deal turns out to be for Microsoft, it can surely be called a good deal for Skype.
