????在接下來的幾年里，你將會聽到很多關于視頻聊天的新聞，這要歸功于微軟公司（Microsoft）斥資85億美元收購了大熱的網絡電話公司Skype。微軟和Skype日前通過一份聯合聲明確認了這起收購。85億美元是微軟有史以來拋出的最高價碼了，次之的是數字營銷公司aQuantitive，微軟2007年以63億美元的價格將其收購。

????盡管Skype此前已經透露了進行首次公開募股的意向，不過在過去幾天里，關于Skype即將被收購的消息還是傳得滿天飛，有消息指出Facebook和谷歌（Google）都是有興趣的潛在買家。據稱谷歌還明確表示了與Skype進行合作，甚至將其收購的興趣。據路透社指出，Skype無論與Facebook和谷歌中的哪一方進行交易，交易價格都會在30億到40億美元之間，顯著高于Skype通過首次公開募股可能募集到的10億美元左右的資金。

????不過根據風投機構安德森-霍洛維茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）的共同創始人馬克?安德森的說法，微軟是唯一一個認真報價的買主。微軟在今年早些時候加入競爭，在四月中旬最后敲定了交易價格，然后在前兩天正式簽署了協議。

????“Skype只與微軟一家進行了真正的交易談判。”安德森告訴《財富》（Fortune）雜志：“我們沒有與任何其他公司進行類似程序。也沒有其他公司像微軟一樣拋出報價。”

????這次收購價格之高，可能讓一些科技觀察人士吃驚不已。不過不管是哪家大公司想吃下Skype，他們都沒有別的選擇，只能預先付出一大筆賭注。最近的交易——甚至是那些失敗的交易，如谷歌收購團購網站高朋（Groupon）的傳言，都指向了一個趨勢：當像微軟一樣的大公司想收購一家熱門的新生企業時，如果他們想獲得那家企業的人才和必要的技術，以保持其競爭力的話，那么他們最好接受事實，準備承擔高額溢價。

????交易完成之后，對于未來來說，更重要的是Skype能為微軟做些什么；而有了Skype的技術之后，微軟又能做些什么。據報道，Skype目前擁有1.7億用戶，年增長率為40%。

????安德森表示：“這絕對是雙倍下注。Skype本身就是一項核心的、基本的基礎建設網絡架構。我們把它稱作”核心100俱樂部”中的一員。它是少數幾項擁有１億以上用戶，而且平均每位用戶每月使用100分鐘以上的服務之一。它是一家領先的公司，成功地將產品由網下轉移到了網上。”

????微軟公司具有雄心勃勃的計劃，想將Skype整合到微軟旗下的許多產品中去。在日前的新聞發布會上，微軟首席執行官史蒂夫?鮑爾默概括地談到了將Skype與微軟的Xbox Live和Xbox Kinect動作控制器等產品進行整合的計劃。此外微軟還可能把Skype與Outlook和Hotmail的郵件體驗進行整合，就像谷歌最近對Gmail所做的那樣。此外最有趣的也許當屬將Skype與安裝了Windows Phone 7系統的智能手機進行整合，以增加使用WP7系統的用戶數量，使WP7“進入下一高度。”例如鮑爾默舉了這樣一個例子：如果孩子們的父母來不及參加家長會，那么他們可以利用WP7手機通過視頻聊天的方式參加家長會，而不需要進行特殊的設置。

????鮑爾默在聲明中指出：“我們是一家非常有雄心壯志的公司。我們向前的勢頭和追求新事物的勢頭是不可扼制的……有時候我們會自己制造一些產品，例如‘必應’（Bing）搜索引擎和Kinect控制器等。我們會和其他公司結盟，以抓住時機。此外我們也會進行并購，如同我們今天宣布的這起收購一樣。”

????鮑爾默希望Skype可以成為微軟版的FaceTime——Facetime是蘋果公司（Apple）的一款視頻聊天軟件，蘋果將其整合到了臺式機、筆記本電腦和移動平臺上。微軟想將Skype打造成公司的一個全新的、獨立的業務部門，這個想法是很雄心勃勃的：微軟的產品線分布得太長，而且一向以因循守舊而出名。而從本質上講，鮑爾默是想通過引入外來者，將他們的技術變為自身軟件和服務生態系統的一部分。如果這樣做的確有效，那么它不僅會提高用戶體驗，也會吸引更多的顧客使用這些產品。如果這樣做沒有效果——如果Skype的高管被排擠在重大決策之外，或者未能保住他們的領域，未能成功將他們的技術整合到微軟的產品中，那么屆時所有人都可以清楚地在微軟的資產負債表上看到他們的財務業績。

????譯者：樸成奎

????You'll be hearing about video chat a lot more over the next few years thanks to Microsoft's headline-making $8.5 billion acquisition of the popular Internet telephony company Skype, which both companies confirmed in a joint announcement earlier today. It's the largest sum Microsoft (MSFT) has ever forked over for a company, beating the $6.3 billion it paid for the digital marketing firm aQuantive in 2007.

????Despite Skype's stated intention to go forward with an initial public offering, speculation over a buyout had been heating up over the last few days, pointing to several interested parties like Facebook and Google, who has allegedly expressed interest in partnering with and even acquiring the company. According to Reuters, a deal with either party would have valued at between $3 billion and $4 billion, significantly more than the $1 billion the company's IPO would have raised.

????But according to Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, the only serious offer came from Microsoft, which entered the picture earlier this year, finalized the deal price in mid-April, and signed off last night.

????"The only actual deal negotiation was with Microsoft," Andreessen told Fortune. "There were no other companies that we ran a process with. No other companies put an offer on the table like Microsoft did."

????While tech watchers reel from sticker shock, whatever big company wanted Skype the most probably never had a choice but to ante up. Recent deals, and even recent failed deals, like the Google/Groupon talks, all point to one trend: when big companies like Microsoft want a shiny new company to acquire, they better be ready to suck it up and pay a huge premium, if they want to gain the talent and technology necessary to remain competitive.

????With the deal done, what's more important going forward is what Skype can do for Microsoft and what Microsoft will do with Skype technology, which currently reports 170 million users and 40% growth year over year.

????"This is definitely a doubling down," Andreesen continued. "Skype itself is one of the core, fundamental infrastructure Internet services. We talk about it as one of the 'Core 100 Club.' It's one of the very few things more than over a hundred million people use more than a hundred minutes a month. It's sort of the leading company and product in transition from offline to online."

????As for Microsoft, the company has ambitious plans of integrating Skype into many of the products in its ecosystem. At its press announcement this morning, CEO Steve Ballmer broadly discussed plans of integration with Xbox Live and the Xbox Kinect motion controller, tying it into the Outlook and Hotmail email experience much in the same way Google recently did with Gmail, and perhaps most interestingly, offering it on Windows Phone 7 devices as a way to increase WP7 user adoption and "take it to the next level." As one example, Ballmer mentioned scenarios where parents can call in and video chat if they're running late to a PTA meeting, no special setup required.

????"We're a super ambitious company," Ballmer remarked at the announcement. "We're irrepressible in moving forward and pursuing new things. … Sometimes we build things ourselves as we've done with Bing and Kinect. We'll form alliances to seize the moment and at other times, we'll make an acquisition as we're announcing today."

????It's Ballmer's hope that Skype becomes their equivalent of FaceTime, the tightly-integrated video chat software Apple (AAPL) is pushing across its desktop, laptop and mobile platforms. Microsoft's goal in making Skype a new, independent business unit of the company is ambitious: essentially, Ballmer wants to bring in outsiders and make their technology part and parcel of Redmond's far-flung and notoriously fiefdom-driven ecosystem of software and services. If it works, it will not only improve user experience, but attract more customers to those products as well. If it doesn't -- if Skype executives are frozen out of big decisions or unable to defend their turf and integrate their technology into Microsoft products -- their fiscal performance should plain as day for all viewers of Microsoft's balance sheet to see.