Skype closing down is one of these great examples of an acquiring companies relentless dedication to failure (maybe like MySpace with Fox).
I worked at Microsoft for a few years from 2013 and I remember they had this iconic London headquarters, they were the only "cool" part of Microsoft where nobody wore suits 😂
Everyone loved them, then one power struggle later Microsoft lay down the law by shutting it all down and fired everyone in London (mostly). The new plan was to abandon the hugely successful consumer side and build an enterprise product in LA (later just a reskinned "Lync" called "Skype for Business").
Despite this blunder Skype was still huge and the consumer "Skype" product was actually very successful in the business world. I saw in 2020-2022 it was still by far the #1 comms channel for mobile game developers to work with partners. Why on earth Microsoft didn't take advantage of this and build Slack before slack or use it to make a 10x better version of Teams I don't understand.
I originally thought it was one of Microsoft's worst acquisitions as they acquired gold and turned it to dust...but I had a think and realised even thought Skype seemed a great deal at $8.5b and is now closed down Microsoft have had some stinkers and a track record of making good deals with horrific execution:
- Danger, Kin smartphone: only $1b but shut down after 48 hours due to horrific reviews (qyute similar to Hololens)
- Mixer/Beam: shut down 4 years after buying/gifted the whole thing to Meta for free
- Nokia: $7.2B destroyed a large chunk of Finlands tech economy with this one, but maybe not Microsoft's fault
- aQuantive: the WOAT, $6.3B, 5x cost of YouTube & 2x the cost of DoubleClick by Google, wrote down a 100% loss and sold the only good part to Meta for $100m
No worries, I've been reading you for years but never posted!
I reposted your LinkedIn with a comment too, although slightly amended comment.
I was going to make a joke about how this is the worst news Microsoft has announced since Majorana 1 (in light of Amazon head of Quantum Hardware head saying there should be “push back on BS statements like S. Nadella’s,” 😂
aQuant is honestly hilarious, I worked with some people at Microsoft from that acquisition who were great but also felt it is kind of unbelievable Google's similar purchase (at half the price) of DoubleClick is probably approaching $1T now!
“None of [the Estonian engineers] had any telecoms background,” Skype co-founder Ahti Heinla explained in the CNBC piece. “I think that was the key thing about why it worked so well. It didn't look like telecom. It didn't behave like one.”
Skype founders had no telecom background.
PayPal founders had no banking background.
Airbnb founders had no hotel background.
Their lack of experience was an advantage because it freed them to create something far better.
Btw, I'm going to do a "Skype RIP" post of my own - I, too, will reference going from phone cards (to call the US from Japan) to a Skype call over fiber. It was like the world had shrunk. So cool, so transformative.
omg yes. but that was a thing. I would pay 1000 yen for like 10 minutes of voice...from a payphone. until Skype. (later, LTE harmonization helped too.)
Did anyone else find the SBF-Tucker Carlson interview super gross? At one point, TC implies that the Dems are all crooks since SBF's political contributions should have gotten him a get-out-of-jail-free card. LOL!
Skype closing down is one of these great examples of an acquiring companies relentless dedication to failure (maybe like MySpace with Fox).
I worked at Microsoft for a few years from 2013 and I remember they had this iconic London headquarters, they were the only "cool" part of Microsoft where nobody wore suits 😂
Everyone loved them, then one power struggle later Microsoft lay down the law by shutting it all down and fired everyone in London (mostly). The new plan was to abandon the hugely successful consumer side and build an enterprise product in LA (later just a reskinned "Lync" called "Skype for Business").
Despite this blunder Skype was still huge and the consumer "Skype" product was actually very successful in the business world. I saw in 2020-2022 it was still by far the #1 comms channel for mobile game developers to work with partners. Why on earth Microsoft didn't take advantage of this and build Slack before slack or use it to make a 10x better version of Teams I don't understand.
I originally thought it was one of Microsoft's worst acquisitions as they acquired gold and turned it to dust...but I had a think and realised even thought Skype seemed a great deal at $8.5b and is now closed down Microsoft have had some stinkers and a track record of making good deals with horrific execution:
- Danger, Kin smartphone: only $1b but shut down after 48 hours due to horrific reviews (qyute similar to Hololens)
- Mixer/Beam: shut down 4 years after buying/gifted the whole thing to Meta for free
- Nokia: $7.2B destroyed a large chunk of Finlands tech economy with this one, but maybe not Microsoft's fault
- aQuantive: the WOAT, $6.3B, 5x cost of YouTube & 2x the cost of DoubleClick by Google, wrote down a 100% loss and sold the only good part to Meta for $100m
Jason! Thank you for the read and sharing this. Damn this is amazing insider intel (totally forgot about aQuant). Will def be sharing. Best, Trung
No worries, I've been reading you for years but never posted!
I reposted your LinkedIn with a comment too, although slightly amended comment.
I was going to make a joke about how this is the worst news Microsoft has announced since Majorana 1 (in light of Amazon head of Quantum Hardware head saying there should be “push back on BS statements like S. Nadella’s,” 😂
https://qz.com/amazon-executive-doubt-microsoft-quantum-computing-chip-1851768401?
But it's too fresh and unrelated.
aQuant is honestly hilarious, I worked with some people at Microsoft from that acquisition who were great but also felt it is kind of unbelievable Google's similar purchase (at half the price) of DoubleClick is probably approaching $1T now!
Appreciate you man. Need more intel like this! hahaha...And thank you for the LI pump. Oldie but goodie lol
this was like 3 or 4 posts worth in one...and the chuckles just kept on coming. Multiple high-fives for the ode to 90s audio cues
Appreciate the read, Jon! That ICQ message sound was no joke eh?
Nope - that meant business!
speaking of audio cues - I always thought the Slack "knock" was pretty genius, though the novelty definitely wore off.
But the UI - I remember when I first used Slack, and I was like - isn't this basically a prettier IRC? (admittedly, much prettier...)
I second that.
“None of [the Estonian engineers] had any telecoms background,” Skype co-founder Ahti Heinla explained in the CNBC piece. “I think that was the key thing about why it worked so well. It didn't look like telecom. It didn't behave like one.”
Skype founders had no telecom background.
PayPal founders had no banking background.
Airbnb founders had no hotel background.
Their lack of experience was an advantage because it freed them to create something far better.
Love that, great take and very true.
Btw, I'm going to do a "Skype RIP" post of my own - I, too, will reference going from phone cards (to call the US from Japan) to a Skype call over fiber. It was like the world had shrunk. So cool, so transformative.
100% them phone cards insane
omg yes. but that was a thing. I would pay 1000 yen for like 10 minutes of voice...from a payphone. until Skype. (later, LTE harmonization helped too.)
Did anyone else find the SBF-Tucker Carlson interview super gross? At one point, TC implies that the Dems are all crooks since SBF's political contributions should have gotten him a get-out-of-jail-free card. LOL!
Thanks for another fun read!