5 ms·

I always thought some three lettered agency must have encouraged MS to buy Skype from its foreign owners for precisely that reason. The first 10 years at least

by rb808 7y ago

I always thought some three lettered agency must have encouraged MS to buy Skype from its foreign owners for precisely that reason. The first 10 years at least MS did absolutely nothing with the company, as if it never really wanted to buy it.

lawnchair_larry 7y ago
That’s pretty silly. For one thing, it was already owned domestically before MS bought it. Second, you think MS spends 8.5 billion plus untild engineering resources and overhead as a favor to the US government?
- Retric 7y ago
  It's unlikely, while the US government had real leverage via contract negotiations, Anti trust issues, etc. Skype looked like a solid investment at the time. Microsoft makes a lot of money from corporate clients so it's probably just another strategic acquisition that they did not know what to do with.
- joering2 7y ago
  Obsolutely! At this point its just a matter of how big is government contract regarding scooping into Skype content. I could bet the billions MS soend have been easily recouped in first 2 years.
- imglorp 7y ago
  Yep. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-...
  - lawnchair_larry 7y ago
    That relates to court orders, which have been served on every company. It was also horribly misreported, with every affected company saying pretty publicly that this wasn’t accurate. There is a difference between being compelled to spend billions on a company just to provide wiretapping for feds, and buying a company with a wildly successful product then being asked to handle wiretaps after the fact. One of those is ridiculous, the other is expected.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Why not? That was immediately before O365, and at that point BPOS/Exchange online was starting to get traction with some governments. Microsoft was also ramping their OCS/VoIP business. Government is a huge market for O365, they were able to get ATOs and go conquer most states and federal agencies. They also bought a huge VoIP play, learned how to operationalize it, quickly spun it into a service component that serves >100M people.
  - lawnchair_larry 7y ago
    I don’t expect to change your mind, but this just isn’t how things work. MS are not a front for the government. Also, you are giving the government far too much credit in terms of how they are organized to even dream that a deal like that could work. Not to mention it would be a massive scandal when it inevitably leaked. This is the same company that famously refused to backdoor bitlocker and fairly recently has been suing the US government to fight against court orders to ha d over data. I suppose you think that’s all a charade to trick the public though...
    - Spooky23 7y ago
      I just said it was plausible. Microsoft, like any company, isn’t good or evil, but will do whatever is in the company’s best interests, and they’ll act appropriately when their interests align with the government.
Jerry2 7y ago
Of course they did! NSA issued an RFP for Skype intercept in 2009 [1] and everyone assumed that MS took them up on it: >An industry source disclosed that America's supersecret National Security Agency (NSA) is offering "billions" to any firm which can offer reliable eavesdropping on Skype IM and voice traffic. And then Snowden revelations confirmed that MS was intercepting Skype [2]: >Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian. >In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism; [1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_for_skype_pwnage/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-...

by rb808 7y ago

lawnchair_larry 7y ago

That’s pretty silly. For one thing, it was already owned domestically before MS bought it. Second, you think MS spends 8.5 billion plus untild engineering resources and overhead as a favor to the US government?

Retric 7y ago
It's unlikely, while the US government had real leverage via contract negotiations, Anti trust issues, etc. Skype looked like a solid investment at the time. Microsoft makes a lot of money from corporate clients so it's probably just another strategic acquisition that they did not know what to do with.
joering2 7y ago
Obsolutely! At this point its just a matter of how big is government contract regarding scooping into Skype content. I could bet the billions MS soend have been easily recouped in first 2 years.
imglorp 7y ago
Yep. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-...
- lawnchair_larry 7y ago
  That relates to court orders, which have been served on every company. It was also horribly misreported, with every affected company saying pretty publicly that this wasn’t accurate. There is a difference between being compelled to spend billions on a company just to provide wiretapping for feds, and buying a company with a wildly successful product then being asked to handle wiretaps after the fact. One of those is ridiculous, the other is expected.
Spooky23 7y ago
Why not? That was immediately before O365, and at that point BPOS/Exchange online was starting to get traction with some governments. Microsoft was also ramping their OCS/VoIP business. Government is a huge market for O365, they were able to get ATOs and go conquer most states and federal agencies. They also bought a huge VoIP play, learned how to operationalize it, quickly spun it into a service component that serves >100M people.
- lawnchair_larry 7y ago
  I don’t expect to change your mind, but this just isn’t how things work. MS are not a front for the government. Also, you are giving the government far too much credit in terms of how they are organized to even dream that a deal like that could work. Not to mention it would be a massive scandal when it inevitably leaked. This is the same company that famously refused to backdoor bitlocker and fairly recently has been suing the US government to fight against court orders to ha d over data. I suppose you think that’s all a charade to trick the public though...
  - Spooky23 7y ago
    I just said it was plausible. Microsoft, like any company, isn’t good or evil, but will do whatever is in the company’s best interests, and they’ll act appropriately when their interests align with the government.

Jerry2 7y ago

Of course they did! NSA issued an RFP for Skype intercept in 2009 [1] and everyone assumed that MS took them up on it: >An industry source disclosed that America's supersecret National Security Agency (NSA) is offering "billions" to any firm which can offer reliable eavesdropping on Skype IM and voice traffic. And then Snowden revelations confirmed that MS was intercepting Skype [2]: >Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian. >In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism; [1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_for_skype_pwnage/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-...