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I also don’t believe Facebook and Google were serious buyers. Google, with its Google Voice offering, doesn’t really need Skype. In essence, I feel Microsoft was bidding against itself. Even then, I personally think this is a bet worth taking, especially for a company that has been left out in the cold for so long.

Skype gives Microsoft a boost in the enterprise collaboration market, thanks to Skype’s voice, video and sharing capabilities, especially when competing with Cisco and Google.
It gives Microsoft a working relationship with carriers, many of them looking to partner with Skype as they start to transition to LTE-based networks.
It would give them a must-have application/service that can help with the adoption of the future versions of Windows Mobile operating system.
However, the biggest reason for Microsoft to buy Skype is Windows Phone 7 (Mobile OS) and Nokia. The software giant needs a competitive offering to Google Voice and Apple’s emerging communication platform, Facetime.

Yesterday we reported on a freelance researcher reverse-engineering the Skype protocol and beginning to write open-source code that would work with this popular VoIP network. A representative of Skype has now contacted Phoronix to inform us they will be taking "all necessary steps" to stop this effort.

After that article was published about the independent researcher, which was also picked up by several other news outlets, I hadn't contacted Skype to see what their views were regarding this reverse-engineering or open-source code. However, this morning, the vice president of a PR agency representing Skype fired off an email to me. Aziza Johnson, the VP of Kaplow PR, had the following official response on this open-source Skype effort:

This unauthorized use of our application for malicious activities like spamming/phishing infringes on Skype's intellectual property. We are taking all necessary steps to prevent/defeat nefarious attempts to subvert Skype's experience. Skype takes its users' safety and security seriously and we work tirelessly to ensure each individual has the best possible experience.

I have not communicated with Aziza or that PR agency in the past, but it's interesting to see the very proactive steps that Skype is now undertaking to squash this work. Perhaps if Skype's Linux client had been better maintained and offered a feature parity to the Windows and Mac OS X clients, there wouldn't be people spending time on reverse-engineering the protocol so that they could write their own client.

As of right now, the Skype open-source blog, hosted by Google's BlogSpot, remains online. There's even a new posting about testing out this researcher's sample code.

Eight Skype executives have departed the company following Microsoft's $8.5 billion buyout in May, a Skype spokeswoman confirmed on Monday.

"Skype, like any other pragmatic organization, constantly assesses its team structure to deliver its users the best products," the company said in a written statement. "As part of a recent internal shift Skype has made some management changes."

The spokeswoman declined to say whether the eight executives were laid off or resigned.