Perhaps by the evening of May 10, the popular Internet resource Skype will have a new owner.

Skype was created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. The first release of the program and the website appeared in September 2003. The headquarters is located in Luxembourg.

October 2005 the company was bought by eBay for about $2.6 billion (an additional $500 million was later paid), but already at the end of 2009. The online auction site divested Skype by selling 65% of its shares to a group of investors for $1.9 billion: investment firm Silver Lake, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (owned by Netscape founders Mark Andriessen and Ben Horowitz), venture capital firm Index Ventures, and investment company pension fund Canada.

eBay has previously tried to sell Skype, explaining the offer by the fact that the provider is a non-core asset for the company. However, the deal never came to fruition due to disagreements with potential buyers over the terms of the purchase and the price itself.

Skype originally planned to go public with an initial public offering (IPO) of shares. During the IPO, the company hoped to raise about $ 1 billion. On May 5, 2011, information appeared that two online giants at once - Facebook and Google - were showing interest in buying the popular Skype Internet telephony service. The two companies have independently stepped up talks about a possible joint venture with a web-based video calling service. At the same time, Facebook is also considering the possibility of acquiring Skype as a whole, the source said. Estimated price The proposed deal was announced at about $4 billion.

However, the deal between Facebook and Skype made more sense, since Google already has a similar service - Google Voice.

On May 10, information appears in the media about the possible purchase of the popular Internet telephony service Skype by Microsoft, while the price of the transaction is expected to be twice as much as the competitors originally offered - about 8 billion dollars.

At the moment, negotiations on the possibility of buying Skype are still ongoing, and only by the evening of Tuesday, May 10, the official outcome of the deal will be finally known.

Thus, if the deal goes through, the purchase of Skype, whose services are used by more than 660 million people worldwide, will be the largest acquisition in the history of Microsoft.

Updated! The deal went through!

Microsoft's $8.5 billion offer was a record for Skype, which was valued at a modest $2.75 billion just a year and a half ago. In this situation, the usually thrifty American corporation preferred to overpay, but it was guaranteed to save itself from competitors in the face of Google and Facebook, who looked at things more realistically.

A joint official press release from Microsoft and Skype says that Skype will become part of the corporation as a separate division. It will be chaired by current Skype CEO Tony Bates. He will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

But the main thing that interests the multi-million audience of Skype is what fate will befall the service after its transition to a new owner. Anticipating this, Microsoft hastened to announce that it would continue to support versions of Skype for "foreign" platforms. These include both Skype clients for "desktop" Mac OS X and Linux, and mobile applications For operating systems iOS, Android and Symbian.

Otherwise, Microsoft intends to dispose of the service as follows. First of all, a version of Skype for the platform will be released. Windows phone 7. It is logical to assume that the Skype client will be pre-installed on devices based on this OS, including Windows smartphones manufactured by Nokia, which should be released in late 2011 or early 2012. If Apple at one time had to develop the FaceTime video service for its computers and mobile devices literally "from scratch", then Microsoft received it, in fact, already ready.

Secondly, Steve Ballmer's company emphasized that its own online services will be integrated with Skype, including hot mail, service Windows Live, a business-focused communications platform, Lync, and mail program outlook.

Thirdly, Microsoft will find application for Skype in the field of video games. It was announced that users of the gaming Xbox console 360. It is planned to use the Kinect controller in the video chat - how, one can only guess. The company already offers gamers a service for video calls Kinect Video with gesture control. On the basis of Kinect Video, Microsoft plans to launch the Avatar Kinect service, where instead of users, virtual characters will appear on the screen, repeating their movements and facial expressions.

A piece of the Skype pie could also fall to Facebook, which has fallen out of the race - after all, it is Microsoft that owns a 1.3 percent share in the social network.

Skype in the modern world is the number one service for making voice and video calls. Since its inception in 2003, the messenger has gradually improved its interface to the point where anyone with basic skills can master it quickly.

It has paid and free versions. latest version allows users to integrate their Skype and Facebook contacts. Such popularity of the messenger draws special attention to the history of its creation.

First steps

The first question of any user who has been using the program for years and decided to take an interest in its history is “Who invented Skype?”. The original founders of Skype were Scandinavians Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, from Denmark and Sweden, respectively. However, developers software there were three - Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kazesalu and Jaan Tallinn, who created the previously famous KaZaA file sharing service.

These guys came up with a great idea - to give any user with an Internet connection the ability to communicate and talk with any other subscriber. But that's not all, it would all be completely free.

On August 29, 2003, the developers released the first official release of the application, which immediately attracted the attention of thousands of users.

It was something amazing, especially for people from less developed countries, where other means of communication were expensive, limited, or even impossible. People very quickly began to use Skype as a method of making free calls to anywhere in the world. In the blink of an eye, the application became in demand all over the world.

The first earnings of the founders

After such a rapid popularity and demand, the creators had to think that it was time for their product to generate income. They decided to start providing paid services– direct calls to regular phones from Skype and vice versa.

Moreover, they made it possible to make such calls at really discounted prices, many times lower than regular landline or mobile calls.

In 2005, the messenger was actively used by more than 70 million people. Skype began to bring good money to the owners (about $ 35 million per quarter). But that was only the beginning.

Buy Skype eBay

Also in 2005, eBay, the largest and most popular auction on the planet, bought Skype for an astonishing $2.6 billion at the time. The owners of the auction did not fully understand why they needed this development, but they considered the deal big and profitable.

Already in the next 2006, Skype's revenue doubled and amounted to about $195 million. The number of active users also quickly grew to 171 million. In 2007, revenue reached $381 million and there were 278 million users.

During those four years that the messenger was owned by Ebay, the service has become truly popular and in demand all over the world. The number of active users during this time has grown from 55 to 400 million.

In November 2009, the program is sold again. eBay announced that they had sold a 70% stake in the company for $2.5 billion. What's more, the very first owners, those who created the program, received a 14% stake in the service and a seat on the board of directors. Without investing in the development of the service a penny. They simply guaranteed, in return, that Ebay not be sued for illegal use of their patent.

Microsoft era

In 2010, the number of Skype users reached 663 million, and revenue grew by 20% to $860 million. But the company is still losing money, despite the fact that the annual loss was only $7 million.

In 2011, Microsoft announced that they were buying Skype and were willing to pay a whopping $8.5 billion for the deal. It was the largest acquisition the Windows developers have ever made.

Microsoft's managers felt comfortable paying this amount because they had big plans. They planned to integrate Skype into their applications such as Windows, MS office, etc.

Skype is now available on devices running Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8 and Windows Phones. In addition, for gadgets from Apple and Play Station Portable Sony.

Development of application versions

Skype 4.1 was launched in 2009. By 2010 Skype 4.1 was rooted on Windows, Mac and Linux. Skype has targeted the mobile market for devices such as Android, iPhone and iPad. Early versions allowed to make only voice calls. In December 2010, Skype video calls became available for iPhone users. By June 2011, Androids are using the same access.

Skype continues to expand into new markets, becoming available for applications such as Linux, smart TVs, game consoles. In May 2011, after the takeover by Microsoft, version 5.3 is released. It includes Facebook integration and group video calls.

The program was dynamic and far exceeded the original scheme. A large number of consumers began to move to a new platform with group calls, unlimited calls in the country and the promise of an ad-free interface.

In November 2012, Microsoft announced that Skype would become the main messaging service. Users can log in with their Microsoft account. The Bing search bar has also been included in the installer.

The messenger is gradually adapting to the general style of Microsoft.

Skype has already established itself as the leading platform for video and voice calls, instant messaging, file sharing and collaborative chats. Microsoft has turned Skype into a winning investment and an amazing online voice and video chatting software. Its creator can be proud of his offspring.

What is Skype

Skype is one of the most popular Internet telephony services in the world, as well as the messenger preferred by many.

Skype program was created by the company Skype Technologies SA V 2003. The history of creating a product for citizens of the post-Soviet space is notable for the fact that Estonians took part in writing the first program. Even now, according to Wikipedia, Skype has the majority of developers and almost half of the general department in its Estonian division. The company itself began as a national Swedish company, and positioned its program as VoiP- means of Internet telephony. Following the acquisition in 2011 of Skype Limited by Microsoft, the company is a division of Microsoft headquartered in Luxembourg,

What does the word Skype, which gave the name of the world-famous program and company, mean? It is useless to look in dictionaries for how this abbreviation is translated. Initially, the application program was called Sky Peer-to-Peer, which can be translated as "heavenly peering". The name described the principle of the service, but it turned out to be too long, they decided to shorten it to Skyper, the domain of the same name turned out to be busy, and we decided to use a truncated Skype.

First version 0.97 appeared in 2003, and since then the version history of the program has been a history of innovation and world conquest. All versions of Skype - from the first to the latest - are the introduction of new technologies, focus on new types of devices and removal from competitors. The number of users and market share of international calls is constantly growing.

What is Skype today? This free program, with which users can make calls to other subscribers and exchange messages and files with them. Subscribers can also subscribe to paid services: calls to landline and Cell phones, send SMS, access to Wi-Fi. What can be done on Skype for free today was still possible yesterday only with a subscription: for example, . At the time of this writing, beta testing of a version with a built-in function has been launched instant translation. The dictionaries available for voice calls and chats differ. For voice communication- this is still English and Spanish, for messages - 44 languages ​​​​used in Microsoft Translator . In the near future, we are waiting for simultaneous translation into Russian of conversations and words in more than 40 languages ​​of the world.

Those who have this program prefer to use it both as a means of audio and video communication, and as a messenger, that is, via the Internet. Some argue that Skype is social network. But call him social network only possible with a great deal of effort. Here, information about your posts is available only to a certain circle of users included in the correspondence, and from public information, and even then only to your contacts, information - how old you turn on your birthday, a small photo and status. Still, Skype is a "normal" communication service, the main purpose of which is to provide high-quality communication.

The application is so popular that in connection with it there are many questions even among the uninitiated. We answer FAQ- FAQ.

What is Skype?

What year was the app launched?

In 2003. This is the date of foundation of the company, and the creation of the first version.

Who owns the program?

After the transaction of 2011 Skype is included into Microsoft corporation

How many users around the world use Skype?

These data vary depending on the source. Usually used with numbers "more than 300 million", and here is the wiki data - 660 million. We don’t know whether Wikipedia estimates Skype correctly, but the fact that the number of users is huge is also confirmed by the official “modest” data, and the reviews about the service are mostly good.

What does it mean that Skype uses VoiP?

This means that IP networks (one of which is the Internet) are used to connect subscribers. What the program does with them is another question. Skype sets the algorithm for using these networks and many other parameters.

Where is the full archive of program versions stored?

Versions that are no longer supported or that do not correspond to the state of the art are not stored in the public domain on the official website. To have access to them and be able to run them, you need to contact special repositories or specialists interested in the subject. They will help you decide what versions are available for your device in case it is outdated, and what this or that product is for.

What does the Skype logo look like?

Skype is a trademark owned by Skype / Microsoft and is protected by copyright:

Therefore, the trademark sign is integrated into the logo tm / tm:

Please note: if an adapted spelling of the word “Skype” is possible in the text, then in the logo the word can only be used as it is written in English.

We hope this article allowed you to understand why Skype is needed, what it is and where it came from.

Now you need and - welcome to the world of unlimited communication!

Video review:

With agree, Skype most users have long been associated with something incredibly solid and serious. I guess Skype really is a serious thing, since so many people use it and so many other people want to be aware of exactly how the first people use it. Only here is the history of the creation of Skype, and the history of its further development from the words "serious" and "solid", if not very far, then at least clearly not close.

Exactly Skype today is almost the absolute leader in the number of dark stories, semi-legal deals and patent scandals. There are so many dark spots in the history of the program that by this criterion, it can easily win the title of world champion in gray schemes. However, while these are just words, let's move on to the facts.

Skype Background: Pirate Parents Make KaZaA

You may not believe me, but the founders of the program (not the developers, please note) were people with far from the most impeccable reputation. To complete the picture, let's fast forward to the very beginning of the "zero" when two enterprising companions Janus Friis And Niklas Zennström(pictured right) came up with and brought to light a program for sharing files KaZaA. A program that at one time broke many records in terms of the number of downloads.

It should be said that the founders of the file sharing service were mainly engaged in organizational and marketing issues, and our former compatriots, Estonians, were engaged in the implementation and creation of the project as such. Jaan Tallinn, Priit Kazesalu And Ahti Heinla(pictured left). All three programmers were in the same class.

And so, until the end of 2001, the file-sharing network was doing just fine, but then thunder struck: several very large music labels immediately sued the owners for copyright infringement. In fact, the program was declared illegal, and its owners were accomplices of pirates.

The founders of the service had to urgently go underground: the possibility of arrest and subsequent punishment was by no means illusory. For the time being, the Estonian programmers were not interested in the investigation, but then it was their turn. Fortunately, no specific charges were brought against them.

The problems ended only at the end of 2001, when the owners of KaZaA resold the service to an Australian company Sharman Networks.

The former owners made a very wise move by pre-registering exclusive rights to the data transfer protocol Global Index P2P offshore (Virgin Islands). Now they had a protected patent, which investigators from Europe could no longer reach. But for the sake of which such complex machinations were carried out, I will tell in the next section.

Creation of Skype

As I already said, KaZaA was based on the P2P protocol, which, in fact, was the main feature of the service. Its unusualness is that the protocol code is closed and extremely complex, and all transmitted data is subject to mandatory encryption. In addition, it is convenient in that when using it, no special one is needed: the users connected to the computers act as roles. Accordingly, this dramatically complicates the interception and tracking of any transmitted information.

And with such a big trump card in my hands, it would be a crime not to create something innovative on its basis. Actually, this is exactly what the enterprising and far-sighted Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström did. Having received money to start a new project from a well-known venture capitalist, they began developing a completely new client for transmitting voice and other types of messages.

That's right, that's what Skype was known to everyone today.

Since the owners of Skype already had guys “in the know” (still the same team of Estonian programmers), we didn’t have to wait for a long start - August 29, 2003 the first official release of the program was released, which immediately attracted the attention of thousands of users.

What exactly did you take Skype for? Perhaps the main advantages were ease of use and excellent quality sound. Later - also multiplatform. In fact, a powerful blow was dealt to the stomach of the entire cellular telephony industry, because now communication between users anywhere in the world was completely free.

In other words, Skype has become popular not only among law-abiding users, the service has attracted all sorts of criminals, drug dealers, terrorists, and in general everyone who did not welcome the publicity of their negotiations. Due to the fact that the data was almost guaranteed to be protected from interception, Skype has become a favorite means of communication for many dark personalities.

It got to the point that Skype's Luxembourg office received hundreds of complaints from the intelligence services of a good dozen countries. The requirements were similar: ban, declassify, allow. Only the founders of Skype were already scientists: they had an impeccable legal base on their side, which was 100% protected from external intrusion and attacks by anyone.

Ebay and Skype

By 2005, Skype became so popular that the largest planet became interested in it. To tell the truth, the auctioneers themselves did not know what exactly this service had surrendered to them, but they felt its enormous potential, and therefore began negotiations on the purchase.

In the fall of 2005, Ebay announced the purchase of Skype for a fabulous for that time amount of $2.6 billion. In the blink of an eye, the founders of the service became billionaires, and the programmers got something: each of the starting trinity received $42 million.

It would seem that a period of recognition and calm has come, you can rest on your laurels and spend profits. Nothing like that: the former owners of the service managed to enter the same river twice. Paradoxically, they sued Skype, accusing the company of not having the right to consider the P2P protocol as its property, since the patent for the invention is still in the hands of the old owners. Hitro, do you agree?

I will not tell you about the long ups and downs, which, by the way, lasted more than one year, I will only say that there was a fair amount of noise. The result of all this is this: in November 2009, Skype was sold again, and the former pirates received a 14% stake in the service and a seat on the board of directors. And that's without a penny of investment, by the way. They just dropped legal action from Ebay (patent abuse, remember?).

Over the four years that Skype was owned by Ebay, the service managed to turn into a “candy”, becoming truly popular and loved all over the world. For greater effect, I will indicate only one figure: the number of users has grown from 55 to 400 million. The service was waiting for new owners who could afford such an expensive toy.

The era of Microsoft in Skype

And the big fish bit. In 2011, an agreement was reached on the purchase of Skype by a well-known company for again a record $8.5 billion. Of course, Microsoft's lawyers have now done everything so that the patent embarrassment does not happen again. The rights to Skype were obtained in absolute terms, and the cunning Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström again had a considerable profit in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars for their block of shares. In fact, they managed to get money from different companies twice for the same product. These are, indeed, the sharks of capitalism.

The new owners got down to business seriously, since their resources were almost endless. It is thanks to the powerful technical support and huge financial investments today Skype is one of the most popular and demanded programs in the world. The number of users has long exceeded half a billion, and this, as experts say, is far from the limit.

She is so incredible the history of the creation of Slype. The history of a service that brought billions to someone, and only a headache and numerous problems to someone. And this, I can assure you, is only a small part of the iceberg. Many facts are still reliably hidden from the general public and are unlikely to ever be made public.

Communication is one of the main components of our life. The development of technology pushed letters written by hand to the “backyard”, giving the palm to IT tools. The latter include mobile connection and the Internet. With their help, you can freely communicate, being hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart. Now we do not run to the mailbox - we rush to the computer as fast as we can, when the Skype call begins to ring melodiously and loudly in it.

Leading communication tool

Without exaggeration, we can say that this program is a kind of symbol of freedom on the Internet. Many users of this utility are seriously interested in how Skype was created and who was its founder? There are many opinions about this issue. And most of them are false. Interestingly, many Danes and Swedes declare with absolute certainty that the developers of Skype are their compatriots. However, this is not entirely true. This article talks about who really invented Skype and how this utility has gained recognition around the world.

Estonian roots

Everyone probably knows a small beautiful European country whose name automatically raises a smile - Estonia. For some reason, the population of the former Soviet Union associates this state exclusively with the slowness and slowness of its citizens. What is the surprise of many when it becomes known fact that the creation of Skype is the work of the Estonian guys. Agree, it is incredible that this country with a slow course of life is the birthplace of one of the most fast programs for communication on the Internet. This fact contains a seemingly hidden allusion to an absolutely false idea of ​​the temperament and character of Estonians.

The origin and development of the utility

The history of Skype began in 2003. It was then, about 11 years ago, that the Estonian guys Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jan Tallinn developed the initial code, which was the foundation of the future program. At that time, they were also working on a file sharing utility between Internet users. This program is called KaZaa. Together with Estonian young people, the founders of the described file hosting service also worked on this project: Dane Janus Friis and Swede Nicholas Zenstorm. In the process of work, not even slow guys designed the code, which became the basis for the future interactive program.

In parallel with how Skype was created, programmers studied the requirements and wishes of users of the World Wide Web. It became clear that people no longer have enough of a simple chat. Therefore, the team of creators decided to endow the utility with all possible functions that will facilitate not only written communication, but also video communication, as well as the exchange of various data.

Name choice

The original name for the utility was the expression "Sky peer-to-peer", which means "Across the sky with each other." The team then settled on a shortened version of "Skyper". However, in the process of registering domains on the World Wide Web, it was discovered that this name was already taken on many resources. As a result, young people "threw" the last letter "r" from the name and opted for a simple and concise "Skype". This process The selection of the name took several months. The final decision was made in April 2003. The result was the successful registration of domain names Skype.net and Skype.com.

Full version and rise in popularity

In August of the same year, open access Internet enrolled official program, which had almost all the functionality planned by the developers. The so-called beta version was released to the network in order to get detailed information about errors and failures. While Skype was being created, the programmers decided in the future, as far as possible, to introduce into their “brainchild” the functions that consumers want to see. It is thanks to the beta version that the developers have collected enough information about the tastes and preferences of users, which allowed them to create a fast utility equipped with various modes.

First full version became available to users in the fall of 2003. It is noteworthy that in a few months the number of users of this program has grown hundreds of thousands of times. A huge number of people thanked those talented programmers who came up with Skype.

Advantages of the utility

What attracted users to this program?

For starters, it's free to use. The minimum and necessary set of functions for communication is available for free. Remarkably, among them the leading position is occupied by video communication. For many people who live hundreds of thousands of miles apart, this mode is a great opportunity to be closer to each other.

The second point is quick registration. In order to become a member of the large "Skype family" it is enough to enter the address of your mailbox, choose a nickname and a password. And that's it. Now you can enjoy.

This utility also has a convenient and clear interface. Thanks to the well-designed toolbar, you can easily switch modes, change tabs and customize the program. The fourth point is convenient and quick search interlocutor. Just go to the "Contacts" tab and click "Add contact". We enter a name for the search and in the window that appears, select the one we need. A request to be added to the contact list will be sent at the same time.

Of course, the huge advantage of Skype over other programs for communication is the availability a large number various functions. The first and most common (like all similar and similar utilities) is the ability to send and receive simple text messages. The presence of video calls has made Skype the leading application for contacting distant interlocutors. In addition, with the help of the program you can share various files: Send photos, documents, music, videos, and more.

First problem

Two years after the release of the program, the first unpleasant event for developers occurred. Trying to introduce the population of China to the new mobile version utilities, a team of young programmers received serious resistance in the face of local telecommunications companies. The reason for this was the fear of Asian corporations to lose control over the conquered market segments. Only a few Chinese companies made concessions and agreed to add the SkypeOut application to their mobile phones.

Sale and returns

The rapid growth in popularity has attracted the attention of large companies to this program. In 2005, the developers sold their "brainchild". The buyer was eBay, which offered $2.6 billion for the interactive utility. After some time, a corporation known worldwide for its online auctions and payment system PayPal paid bonus payments to the developers of the program, increasing the cost of Skype by 500 million. The history of the creation and modernization of the utility includes another owner. In 2011, eBay sold the rights to the program back to the developers and their attracted investor, Microsoft. The deal amounted to $8.5 billion.

On this moment this is the full version of the story about how much the developers have yet to come. A huge number of plans are in front of programmers. We can only look forward to new and more advanced versions of the Skype interactive communication program.