OAN Staff James Meyers
1:28 PM – Friday, February 28, 2025
Tech giant Microsoft announced that it’s shutting down Skype, the popular video and audio chat service that was considered a new era of video chat in the mid 2000s.
The company posted on X that Skype will “no longer be available” to use starting in May, telling users that their log-in information can be used on Microsoft Teams’ free tier in the “coming days.”
The shutdown of the once famed video service comes 14 years after Microsoft bought the service for $8.5 billion in cash, marking the company’s largest ever acquisition at the time. Microsoft put the service into its other products, such as Office and its failed Windows Phone.
“Skype has been an integral part of shaping modern communications and supporting countless meaningful moments, and we are honored to have been part of the journey,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, said in a blog post. “We’re excited about the new opportunities that Teams brings and are committed to helping you stay connected in new and meaningful ways.”
Skype’s popularity has continued to spiral downward in recent years, due to other video service competing platforms, including Zoom, Google Meet and Cisco Webex. Microsoft has also been heavily investing in Teams, which offers many of the same services.
The platform launched in 2003, in Estonia, and quickly caught on as a way to make free calls across the world, a notable perk considering international calling on traditional phones used to be expensive.
In 2005, eBay bought the service for $2.6 billion. However, the partnership fell apart, and eBay sold its 65% stake in the company to an investor group for $1.9 billion in 2009 before Microsoft bought the service in 2011.
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