Connected Systems Division Microsoft
Connected Systems Division Microsoft
Microsoft acquires Skype for $8.5B in cash
In a landmark deal, Microsoft Corp. has acquired internet phone company Skype Technologies SA, reps for both the companies announced Tuesday. Placing its biggest bet yet, the Redmond software giant paid $8.5 billion in cash to buy VoIP provider Skype Global. Rumors were rampant recently that Skype was in the sights of search engine mammoth Google and Facebook--a popular online social network site, as an acquisition target.
Microsoft acquires Skype
Eventually, the once-dominant software company Microsoft appeared as a prime bidder for Skype, which has 663 million people across the world registered to use its voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) communications.
A once cutting-edge technology company, Microsoft, confirmed Tuesday it had "entered a definitive agreement" to acquire VoIP provider Skype Global for $8.5 billion in cash. Apparently in an attempt to catch up with Apple and Google, Microsoft has acquired the online telephony and video conferencing company for twice its recent valuation.
Skype acquisition is the expensive ever
Microsoft's acquisition of Skype is also the company's biggest bet in its 36-year history, edging out its $6 billion purchase of online advertising company aQuantive in 2007.
Under the deal, Skype will run as a separate business inside Microsoft, dubbed Microsoft Skype. Skype chief executive Tony Bates will become president of the new division and report directly to Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer. "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world. Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world," Ballmer said of their acquisition of Skype. Microsoft has already been offering three other VoIPs, via MSN Messenger, Xbox Live and Lync, used in its Office division.
Microsoft plans big with Skype
While announcing the all-cash deal during a news conference in San Francisco, Ballmer also outlined the company's plans to bring the technology to a wider audience of consumers and business customers. The software giant is planning to add Skype support to its popular Xbox and Kinect gaming devices and Windows Phone mobile operating system, and connect Skype users with its own Lync, Outlook e-mail program, and Xbox Live communications services. "By bringing together the best of Microsoft and the best of Skype, we will empower people around the world with new technologies that should bring them closer together," Ballmer said.
About Skype
Headquartered in Luxembourg, Skype was founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis and was bought by eBay in 2005. That company then sold a majority stake of Skype to an investment consortium including its founders and Silver Lake in 2009. Skype offers free voice and video communications over the internet, a popular alternative to standard telephone calls, especially over long distances. According to the company, it has more than 660 million registered members worldwide, including 107 million who use the service at least once a month, using the service regularly for calls and chats for more than 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations.
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Connected Systems Division Microsoft
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Fingerprinting of children
Further information: Biometrics in schools
Various schools have implemented fingerprint locks or registered children's fingerprints. This happened in the United Kingdom (fingerprint lock in the Holland Park School in London,39 databases, etc.),40 in Belgium (école Marie-José in Liège4142), in France, in Italy, etc. The NGO Privacy International has alerted that tens of thousands of UK school children were being fingerprinted by schools, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents.43 In 2002, the supplier Micro Librarian Systems, which use a technology similar to US prisons and German military, estimated that 350 schools through-out Britain were using such systems, to replace library cards.43 In 2007, it is estimated that 3 500 schools (ten times more) are using such systems.44 Under the Data Protection Act (DPA), schools in the UK do not have to ask parental consent for such practices. Parents opposed to such practices may only bring individual complaints against schools.45
In Belgium, this practice gave rise to a question in Parliament on February 6, 2007 by Michel de La Motte (Humanist Democratic Centre) to the Education Minister Marie Arena, who replied that they were legal insofar as the school did not use them for external purposes nor to survey the private life of children.46 Such practices have also been used in France (Angers, Carqueiranne college in the Var ? the latter won the Big Brother Award of 2005, etc.) although the CNIL, official organisation in charge of protection of privacy, has declared them "disproportionate."47
In March 2007, the British government was considering fingerprinting of children aged 11 to 15 as part of new passport and ID card (the latter having been recently implemented in the UK), also lifting opposition for privacy concerns. All fingerprints taken would be cross-checked against prints from 900,000 unsolved crimes. Shadow Home secretary David Davis called the plan "sinister."44
Recently, serious concerns about the security implications of using conventional biometric templates in schools have been raised by a number of leading IT security experts, including Kim Cameron, architect of identity and access in the connected systems division at Microsoft, who cites research by Cavoukian and Stoianov48 to back up his assertion that "it is absolutely premature to begin using 'conventional biometrics' in schools".
Biometric vendors claim benefits to schools such as improved reading skills, decreased wait times in lunch lines and increased revenues.49 They do not cite independent research to support this. Educationalist Dr Sandra Leaton Gray of Homerton College, Cambridge stated in early 2007 that "I have not been able to find a single piece of published research which suggests that the use of biometrics in schools promotes healthy eating or improves reading skills amongst children... There is absolutely no evidence for such claims".
The Ottawa Police in Canada advised parents who fear that their children may be kidnapped to have their fingerprints taken.50
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