>"Google has enormous data centers, and capable teams, lots of loyal Gmail users, there's nothing that would benefit Google by buying Skype. Those reasons also hold for Microsoft."
Data centers and capable employees are not reasons one way or the other (unless the company suffers from NIH syndrome); they are simply facts. Loyal users are, on the other hand, a consideration - but there are fundamental differences between Google's customers and Microsoft's particularly in regards to Microsoft's B2B orientation versus Google's ad revenue based model.
While peer to peer is problematic for Google's core revenue stream which requires consumers to frequently access Google's servers, peer to peer is perfectly consistent with Microsoft's core business wherein customers' contact with Microsoft's data centers is relatively infrequent and intermittent - e.g. Microsoft's revenue model works if a customer only contact with Microsoft servers is once a month on patch Tuesday.
In the long run, Microsoft can certainly screw the pooch on the deal. However, the purchase leaves no doubt that Microsoft sees telephony as far more than mobile. One could argue that they have made Google Voice a distant second in the space, e.g. very limited geographic availability for user accounts.
Data centers and capable employees are not reasons one way or the other (unless the company suffers from NIH syndrome); they are simply facts. Loyal users are, on the other hand, a consideration - but there are fundamental differences between Google's customers and Microsoft's particularly in regards to Microsoft's B2B orientation versus Google's ad revenue based model.
While peer to peer is problematic for Google's core revenue stream which requires consumers to frequently access Google's servers, peer to peer is perfectly consistent with Microsoft's core business wherein customers' contact with Microsoft's data centers is relatively infrequent and intermittent - e.g. Microsoft's revenue model works if a customer only contact with Microsoft servers is once a month on patch Tuesday.
In the long run, Microsoft can certainly screw the pooch on the deal. However, the purchase leaves no doubt that Microsoft sees telephony as far more than mobile. One could argue that they have made Google Voice a distant second in the space, e.g. very limited geographic availability for user accounts.