REDMOND, Wash. (AP) – Microsoft is discontinuing Skype, the video-calling service it acquired in 2011 for $8.5 billion. The tech giant announced on Friday that it will retire Skype in May and redirect some of its services to Microsoft Teams, its main video-conferencing platform. Existing Skype users will be able to use their current accounts to log into Teams.
Microsoft has favored Teams over Skype for several years, and the decision to phase out Skype is part of a bigger shift in how people communicate online.
Skype, initially founded in 2003 by engineers in Tallinn, Estonia, was a pioneer in internet-based phone calls, bypassing traditional landlines. It added video calls after eBay purchased the service in 2005.
By 2011, when Microsoft bought Skype from eBay, the service had around 170 million users globally, as stated by then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer during the merger announcement. “The Skype brand has become a verb, almost synonymous with video and voice communications,” Ballmer said.
Skype still retained its high-tech status in 2017 when the newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump’s administration used it for journalists’ questions far from the White House briefing room.
