Microsoft made waves this morning with the announcement of their acquisition of video chat service Skype.
But the buzz wasn't just about the acquisition itself, and more about the $8.5 billion price tag will be worth it for Microsoft. Considering Google's second-place offer was $4.5 billion less, financially it's easy to say that Microsoft overpaid quite a bit.
Another knock against this deal is that Microsoft already has a pretty strong video chat service in Windows Live Messenger. In fact, Windows Live Messenger has more monthly users and a higher number of simultaneous users than Skype.
However, Skype's 124 million montly users is still a large chunk of the market, and no one is arguing that Micorsoft bettered themselves by acquiring them. The criticism revolves around how much they paid for Skype, and what the future holds for existing Skype users.
On the other hand, some people are hopeful that Microsoft's vast resources will mean big things for the popular video chat service. One example is potential integration of Skype and Kinect, Microsoft's innovative gesture recognition system that has sold over 10 million units in 6 months.
So the initial reactions to this move are mixed, and now it's up to Microsoft to prove to the tech world that they didn't break the bank to get Skype.
