Microsoft managed to turn Skype into a very profitable business

Feb 21, 2013 03:01 GMT  ·  By

The Skype platform is finally making sense for Microsoft, as the yearly revenues of this particular division have reached approximately $2 billion (€1.5 billion).

According to a report by Bloomberg, the Skype unit, which also includes the corporate instant messaging and voice calling service Lync, has more than doubled its revenues in the two years spent under Microsoft’s umbrella.

Back in 2011 when the Redmond-based technology titan officially took over Skype, the platform only generated $800 million (€597 million) in revenues. Microsoft paid a total of $8.5 billion (€6.3 billion) to buy the Skype service.

Skype is now playing a much more important role in Microsoft’s long-term plan, as the company is intending to use it as the number one messaging client across all platforms. Skype will soon replace Windows Live Messenger, as it already owns dedicated versions for Windows, Windows 8, iOS and Android.