Tech large Microsoft has confirmed plans to close down video-conferencing platform Skype, 14 years after buying the European-built app.
Based in 2003 by a staff of builders and entrepreneurs from throughout Europe, the corporate rapidly disrupted the landline business and paved the way in which for future communications platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Groups and Google Hangouts.
“We all know this can be a large deal for our Skype customers, and we’re very grateful for his or her help of Skype and all of the learnings which have factored into Groups during the last seven years,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative Apps and platforms instructed TechCrunch.
“At this level, placing all our focus behind Groups will allow us to give a less complicated message and drive sooner innovation.”
Since promoting his shares in Skype, cofounder Jaan Tallinn has develop into a outstanding startup investor, backing main AI firms like DeepMind and Anthropic.
Tallinn’s more moderen investments embody Unlikely AI, the London-based startup based by the previous head of Amazon’s Alexa unit, which goals to get rid of the variety of “hallucinations” produced by giant language fashions.
Tallinn’s fellow cofounder Niklas Zennström went on to discovered Atomico, considered one of Europe’s most outstanding VC corporations, which has backed homegrown giants like Stripe, Klarna and DeepL.
Writing on Linkedin following the announcement, Zennström wrote: “We constructed Skype to interrupt the telecoms monopoly and make the world slightly smaller. In a single day expats, enterprise travellers, holidaymakers, and people leaving their house nations underneath far harder circumstances had a method to keep related to their family members — fully without spending a dime.”
He added: “Skype was a revolutionary product of its time and I’ll at all times be proud and grateful for the early staff members and traders who took an opportunity on us.”
