It is just six days ago that I questioned whether Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype would make the latter a better social media tool and now it has gone and crashed, locking millions out of connections with loved ones and causing a major headache for business who rely on it to talk to clients.
To keep things fair the Microsoft acquisition of Skype is so fresh still that there probably has been zero impact upon the way the service is ran, the timing of the crash however shows that the gods do have a sense of humour and that in business problems can emerge from the most unlikely quarters.
The blogosphere, right now, is abuzz with conspiracy theories pointing to Microsoft’s admittedly checkered history when it comes to software crashing. Things are not helped by the recent announcement of Skype’s intention to not renew its agreement with an open-source, third party vendor. Microsoft’s traditional dislike of anything open source and its willingness to ‘close’ that door in every opportunity it gets is again surfacing, to work against it.
Being realistic it is still early days when it comes to deciding just how Skype will develop under the steerage of Microsoft’s corporate hand. Jokes making the rounds aside Microsoft’s daring acquisition has brought the company under closer scrutiny than ever before. Time, will show whether the merger is inspired or it’s the desperate reflex action critics want it to be.
In the meantime, before a patch is officially posted, if you want to get your Skype going again, check out this fix.
