Microsoft To Buy Skype

The giant wheels are in motion for Skype to become Microsoft’s largest ever acquisition at $8.5bn (£5.2bn).  

Luxembourg-based Skype has 663 million global users but doesn’t make a whole lot of money, so what is in it for Microsoft?

Well Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer summed it up: "Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world.”

So in truth, they are buying into potential, and it is huge potential if you consider what could be achieved if the Skype software is married up with the Xbox Kinect and an HD television set. 

For home use, we could potentially be talking home schooling or even patient care delivered remotely and in vision.  For business, Microsoft could potentially challenge the dominance of firms like Cisco and Polycom.

One major stumbling block has to be overcome first though; how do you marry an open voice/video-over-the-internet service with a company notorious for bureaucracy?

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18th in the Broadband World Ranking's

The UK is gradually climbing the broadband world rankings but according to a global study, we are not yet “ready for tomorrow”.

Cisco has commissioned this year’s annual report into the world’s broadband capabilities. It’s a study that looks at countries performance in terms of both quality and penetration of net services. The UK is now ranked 18th out of 72 countries, up from 25th place last year, with South Korea once again ranked first.

The applications ascribed to tomorrow's internet include high definition internet TV and high-quality video communications; because such applications would require an average download speed of 11Mbps and an upload speed of 5Mbps.


Whilst the UK has improved significantly in the last two years, we are still not prepared for what is ahead.


Mr de Bernabe, a Senior Director at Cisco, said the UK was likely to experience a "step-change" in its broadband footprint over the next 12 months, because of increased fibre optic roll-outs from BT and extensions of Virgin Media's cable network.


"Where similar fibre roll-outs have happened the download speeds improved by 50 or 60% in just one year," he said.

Cisco to acquire innovators of design MOTO Development

This week, network equipment giants Cisco Systems Inc. have announced their intention to acquire design consulting firm MOTO Development Group.

Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking equipment that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. This year celebrates 25 years of their technology innovation, operational excellence and corporate social responsibility.

MOTO Development Group, is a privately held design consulting firm that is based in San Francisco. Founded in 1991 it has been instrumental in the development of innovative product lines such as the Flip Video, Valet and Linksy.

MOTO's talent base should complement Cisco's and enable Cisco to rapidly enhance its consumer product development road map or at least that is the idea! The acquisition of MOTO is another step toward embedding consumer design and ease of use into Cisco products for the consumer market.

The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2010.