Microsoft buys Skype, what could this mean for Lync?

May 10th, 2011 | Tags: Lync Server 2010, Microsoft, Skype

Just a few hours ago Microsoft announced that they had purchased Skype for a whopping $8.5 billion, so now begins the predictions – how will this change Microsoft’s suite of communications products, most notably Lync.

Short of asking SteveB (sorry not even us MVPs only get an opertunity to do this more than once a year – if we are lucky!), all we can do dream up ideas and hope for the best. After a day of pondering I thought I’d share some of my own ideas with you…

First the consumer space:

Windows Live Messenger integration – perhaps in longer term a unified client? I know many would be against this, but is the Skype client really all that great, in my experience Skype-bloat has definitely been on the rise in the last 2 years!
Obviously Skype clients for WP7 & XBOX – the WP7 client was previously confirmed at MIX11 – perhaps this was where talks began?

Lastly but not least my Lync ideas:

Lync optimised SIP trunks – The could take advantage of Skype’s global PSTN breakout and low-cost rates
PIC for Skype (R.I.P. my Skype-to-Lync integration blog post) – okay so it was a workaround and PIC would be far superior!
Lync Online with full telephony

One things for sure, this isn’t going to rest easy for the telcos, Google or Cisco – hopefully it will stack up well for us. Time will tell, but I’m optimistic!