【Microsoft and Skype Why buy Skype?-Skype,the】

微軟為什麼要收購Skype

原文：

“IRREPRESSIBLE” is a word that is usually used to denote somethingthat is hard to control or restrain. Steve Ballmer, the boss ofMicrosoft, is obviously very fond of it. At a press conference onMay 10th to announce the company’s, an online phone andvideo-calling service, he used the word several times to imply thatMicrosoft was still a dynamic company. But the firm’s shareholdersmay end up wishing that Mr Ballmer had shown considerably morerestraint when negotiating the firm’s largest ever takeover.

“Irrepressible”這個單詞通常形容某事難以操控或抑製。微軟領導人SteveBallmer顯然很喜歡它。在五月十日的一場新聞發布會上他多次使用這個單詞強調微軟仍是一個有活力的公司，該發布會通報了微軟對在線電話和視頻服務商skype的價值85億美元的巨額收購。但是股東們恐怕要停止幻想說Ballmer在該公司此次有史以來最大的收購中曾經表現出足夠的克製。

The way the deal came about shows how desperate the software giantwas to get its hands on Skype. The target company was heading for astockmarket flotation until Microsoft suddenly lobbed in anunsolicited offer for it. The amount Microsoft ultimately coughedup for Skype was generous enough to convince the firm’s investors,which include Silver Lake Partners, a private-equity fund, andAndreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital firm, to jettison theplanned public offering in favour of Microsoft’s all-cash deal.

此次交易的達成過程展現出這家軟件業巨頭是多麼地渴望收購Skype。這家公司在微軟突然主動發出收購意願前正在為上市做著準備。微軟所提出的對Skype的最終收購價格也足以使該公司投資者放棄計劃中的公開募股而選擇微軟的全現金收購。這些投資者包括私募SilverLake Partners和風投Andreessen Horowitz。

Yet it is hard to see how thecompany can justify splashing out the equivalent of 400 timesSkype’s operating income last year for its prey. Although Skype’sservice has become so well-known that its name has become a verb,it has struggled to get users to pay for premium services such ascalls to mobile phones. It had 663m registered users last Decemberand made $860m in revenue in 2010, implying revenue per user of amere $1.30. And it has singularly failed to develop a convincingadvertising model.

微軟似乎很難對被犧牲的（股東）解釋清其以400倍於Skype上一年營業收入的價格的大手筆收購行為。雖然Skype的服務已眾所周知且Skype已經變成一個動詞，但它仍在努力吸引用戶使用其包括對手機呼叫在內的付費服務。截止去年12月，其擁有6億6千3百萬的注冊用戶且在2010獲得了8.6億美元的營收，平均每個用戶僅1.3美元。並且竟然仍未開發出一個令人信服的廣告模式。

Announcing the deal, Mr Ballmer (pictured, left, with Skypes boss,Tony Bates) tried to spin these as opportunities. But peoplechatting away on video calls are unlikely to pay a great deal ofattention to ads, no matter how expertly sold by Microsoft’ssalesforce. And the company will have to come up with incrediblycompelling offerings to persuade folk who have been conditioned togetting a wonderful service for nothing to dip into their walletsand purses.

There may also be potential for the company to come up with newofferings by linking Skype’s service with, say, its Xbox 360 gamingconsoles and its Kinect motion-sensing devices, allowing gamers tosee the outrage on friends’ faces when they zap their onlinecharacters for the umpteenth time. And by integrating Skype withthe operating system for its Windows 7 phones—which is also likelyto become the operating system for phones from Nokia, with whomMicrosoft has an alliance—it can better compete with videoofferings from rivals.

但為什麼要通過收購Skype來完成所有這些構想呢？畢竟微軟公布這些構想後，（Skype）與微軟在這些領域合作來提升營收毫無疑問是精明的。答案可能是：微軟迫切地想塑造自己成為炫酷消費科技的源泉，同時通過徹底地擁有Skype來顯示其創新領頭蜂地位的可信度。但問題是，在消費領域裏微軟同Google和Apple這類公司的競爭正大幅落後甚至有些狼狽，這種局麵恐怕很難挽回了。

企業市場可能相對更具前景一些。微軟通過Windows和Office產品已經對此領域涉足很深。同時將Skype整合到其已頗受歡迎的Lync服務使其能更有效地應對來自包括Cisco在內競爭對手所提供的同類服務，該服務通過整合視頻聊天、即時通訊和網絡電話會議在內的眾多通訊工具推動了公司內部的合作。

在宣布此次收購的同時，Ballmer（圖左，另一位為Skype領導人TonyBates）試圖將這些說成是機會。無論微軟的營銷多麼的專業，但視頻對話中的人們並不樂意於在廣告上分心。同時微軟將不得不提供更具說服力的產品來吸引這些已經習慣了免費又好用的服務的用戶。