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69-432: On January 11, 2013, Microsoft announced that they were retiring the existing Messenger service globally (except for mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available) and replacing it with Skype. In April 2013, Microsoft merged the service into Skype ; existing users were able to sign into Skype with their existing accounts and access their contact list. As part of the merger, Skype's instant messaging functionality

138-551: A COVID-19 vaccine . Prior to Machin, Mark Wiseman was CEO until June 13, 2016. According to the 2013 Annual Report, about 63% of the fund's assets are now invested outside Canada, largely in the United States , Europe and Asia. In addition, the CPPIB has been broadening the scope of its investments to include emerging markets, although David Denison , CEO at the time, would not pinpoint a specific country or area. "Canada as

207-691: A Crown corporation , the CPP Investment Board is accountable to Parliament and reports annually through the Minister of Finance. While accountable to Parliament, the CPP Investment Board is not controlled by the government or subject to government appointments, its employees and directors are not part of the Public Service of Canada . CPPIB is a partner of the World Economic Forum . The CPP Investment Board's mandate

276-626: A 5% share in the new Crestone Peak Resources partnership, was completed in July 2016. Broe will manage the portfolio of more than 1600 wells. In November 2015, CPPIB and CVC Capital Partners acquired American pet supplier Petco in a deal worth $ 4.6 billion. In July 2016, CPPIB and Calgary -based Wolf Midstream Inc. purchased a 50% stake in Devon Energy 's Access Pipeline located in Alberta . In September 2016, CPPIB and Cinven acquired

345-702: A Skype-created codec called SILK , intended to be "lightweight and embeddable". Additionally, Skype has released Opus as a free codec, which integrates the SILK codec principles for voice transmission with the CELT codec principles for higher-quality audio transmissions, such as live music performances. Opus was submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in September 2010. Since then, it has been standardized as RFC 6716. VP7

414-462: A beta build of version 5 but removed after a few weeks without notification. The usual features familiar to instant messaging users—user profiles, online status indicators, and so on—are also included. The Online Number , a.k.a. SkypeIn, service allows Skype users to receive calls on their computers dialed by conventional phone subscribers to a local Skype phone number; local numbers are available for Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark,

483-399: A client for feature phones that ran on J2ME , Nokia X , Symbian , BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 devices. In May 2009, a Version 3.0 was available on Windows Mobile 5 to 6.1 , and in September 2015, a Version 2.29 was available on Windows Phone 8.1 ; in 2016, Microsoft announced that this would stop working in early 2017 once Skype's transition from peer-to-peer to client-server

552-601: A consortium, first invested US$ 300 million in Skype in September 2009. In May 2011 CPPIB sold its stake in Skype to Microsoft for US$ 1.1 Bn before debt repayment, or US$ 933 million. In 2009 CPPIB also invested in the $ 5.2-billion purchase of IMS Health with Texas Pacific Group and the $ 2.1-billion purchase of Macquarie Communications Group . In 2012 CPPIB acquired a 45% stake in ten shopping centers and two redevelopment sites from Westfield Group . CPPIB's equity investment

621-410: A money-send feature, enabling users to transfer funds via the Skype mobile app in the middle of a conversation. In 2019, Skype was declared the sixth most-downloaded mobile app of the decade, from 2010 to 2019. On 10 May 2011, Microsoft Corporation acquired Skype Communications, S.à r.l for US$ 8.5 billion. It was incorporated as a division of Microsoft, which acquired all its technologies with

690-460: A new chat powered by Skype would be implemented in their software, enabling users to chat with co-workers in the same document. On 15 September 2015, Skype announced the release of Mojis ("a brand new way to express yourself on Skype")—short video clips and GIFs featuring characters from films and TV shows that could be entered into conversations like emoticons. Skype worked with Universal Studios , Disney Muppets , BBC and other studios to enhance

759-512: A new version for Windows 8 similar to the Windows Phone version. On 7 July 2015, Skype modified the application to direct Windows users to download the desktop version, but it was set to continue working on Windows RT until October 2016. In November 2015, Skype introduced three new applications, called Messaging, Skype Video, and Phone, intended to provide an integrated Skype experience on Windows 10. On 24 March 2016, Skype announced that

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828-416: A peer-to-peer service to a centralized Azure -based service. As of February 2023, it was used by 36 million people each day. The name for the software is derived from "Sky peer-to-peer ", which was then abbreviated to "Skyper". However, some of the domain names associated with "Skyper" were already taken. Dropping the final "r" left the current title "Skype", for which domain names were available. Skype

897-516: A real rate of return of 4.0%, over the 75-year projection period in his report, to help sustain the plan at the current contribution rate. In December 2013, the Chief Actuary reaffirmed that the CPP is sustainable throughout the 75-year timeframe of his 2012 report. Over this long timeframe it is expected that there will be periods where returns are above or below this threshold. Consistent with

966-625: A record 27 million simultaneous online users. This record was broken with 29 million simultaneous online users on 21 February 2011 and again on 28 March 2011 with 30 million online users. On 25 February 2012, Skype announced that it has over 32 million users for the first time ever. By 5 March 2012, it had 36 million simultaneous online users, and less than a year later, on 21 January 2013, Skype had more than 50 million concurrent users online. In June 2012, Skype had surpassed 70 million downloads on Android. On 19 July 2012, Microsoft announced that Skype users had logged 115 billion minutes of calls in

1035-493: A server, as does Skype). On 20 June 2014, Microsoft announced the deprecation of the old Skype protocol. Within several months from this date, in order to continue using Skype services, Skype users will have to update to Skype applications released in 2014. The new Skype protocol, Microsoft Notification Protocol 24 , was released. The deprecation became effective in the second week of August 2014. Transferred files are now saved on central servers. As far as networking stack support

1104-570: A single market cannot accommodate the future growth of our organization," said Denison. In recent years, the CPPIB changed direction in its investment philosophy. It evolved from investing exclusively in non-marketable government bonds to passive index-fund strategies and, in 2006, to active investment strategies. According to the Office of the Chief Actuary of Canada , the CPP Fund needs

1173-453: A user's identity. Skype mobile applications Skype ( / s k aɪ p / ) is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies , a division of Microsoft , best known for IP -based videotelephony , videoconferencing and voice calls . It also has instant messaging , file transfer, debit -based calls to landline and mobile telephones (over traditional telephone networks ), and other features. It

1242-582: A username with a live: prefix followed by an autogenerated alphanumeric string. Registered users of Skype are identified by a unique Skype ID and may be listed in the Skype directory under a Skype username. Skype allows these registered users to communicate through both instant messaging and voice chat. Voice chat allows telephone calls between pairs of users and conference calling and uses proprietary audio codec . Skype's text chat client allows group chats, emoticons , storing chat history, and editing of previous messages. Offline messages were implemented in

1311-572: Is available on various desktop, mobile, and video game console platforms. Skype was created by Niklas Zennström , Janus Friis , and four Estonian developers, and first released in August 2003. In September 2005, eBay acquired it for $ 2.6 billion. In September 2009, Silver Lake , Andreessen Horowitz , and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought 65% of Skype for $ 1.9 billion from eBay, valuing

1380-957: Is concerned, Skype only supports the IPv4 protocol. It lacks support for the next-generation Internet protocol, IPv6 . Skype for Business , however, includes support for IPv6 addresses, along with continued support of IPv4. Many networking and security companies have claimed to detect and control Skype's protocol for enterprise and carrier applications. While the specific detection methods used by these companies are often private, Pearson's chi-squared test and naive Bayes classification are two approaches that were published in 2008. Combining statistical measurements of payload properties (such as byte frequencies and initial byte sequences) as well as flow properties (like packet sizes and packet directions) has also shown to be an effective method for identifying Skype's TCP- and UDP-based protocols. Skype 2.x used G.729 , Skype 3.2 introduced SVOPC , and Skype 4.0 added

1449-591: Is laid out in its founding legislation, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act ( S.C. 1997, c. 40). Its sole investing mandate is to achieve a "maximum rate of return, without undue risk of loss." The CPP Investment Board invests in private equity , public companies , and real estate . The CPPIB invests in real estate and made their first direct office investment in Seattle in 2016. Notable investments include 50% of

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1518-677: Is making a major push into real estate, especially real estate in India. Historical information on the performance of assets available to the Canada Pension Plan, and financial statements of the CPP Investment Board, can be found under the Quarterly Reports and Annual Reports section of the CPPIB's website. The total growth of the CPP Reserve Fund is derived from the CPP contributions of working Canadians, and

1587-509: Is now running on the backbone of the former Messenger service. Despite multiple name changes to the service and its client software over the years, the Messenger service is often referred to colloquially as " MSN ", due to the history of MSN Messenger . The service itself was known as MSN Messenger Service from 1999 to 2001, at which time, Microsoft changed its name to .NET Messenger Service and began offering clients that no longer carried

1656-488: Is significant. In 2009 it was considered the largest international voice carrier (by minutes of calls). At the end of 2010, there were over 660 million worldwide users, with over 300 million estimated active each month as of August 2015. At one point in February 2012, there were 34 million users concurrently online on Skype. In January 2011, after the release of video calling on the Skype client for iPhone, Skype reached

1725-458: Is used for versions prior to Skype 5.5. As of version 7.0, H.264 is used for both group and one-on-one video chat, at standard definition , 720p , and 1080p high-definition . Skype acquired the video service Qik in 2011. After shutting down Qik in April 2014, Skype relaunched the service as Skype Qik on 14 October 2014. Although Qik offered video conferencing and Internet streaming,

1794-961: The American pet store chain Petco , 50% of American luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus , 50% of Australian office tower development International Towers Sydney , 50.01% of the Ontario Highway 407 toll highway , 21.5% of South Korean discount store chain Homeplus , and 19.8% of multinational media corporation Entertainment One . Other prominent investments are made in Indian companies Byju's , Delhivery , Embassy Office Parks, Eruditus, Power Grid Corporation of India , SBI Life Insurance Company etc. As outlined in its Policy on Responsible Investing, first adopted in 2005,

1863-459: The COVID-19 pandemic . However, Skype also lost a large part of its market share to Zoom . Multiple different versions of Skype have been released for Windows since its conception. The original line of Skype applications continued from versions 1.0 through 4.0. It has offered a desktop-only program since 2003. Later, a mobile version was created for Windows Phones. In 2012, Skype introduced

1932-488: The Government of Canada and solely manages CPP contributions paid by workers and employers, not public funds. As of September 30, 2024, the CPP Investment Board manages over C$ 675 billion in assets under management for the Canada Pension Plan on behalf of 22 million Canadians. The Canada Pension Plan was established in 1966. For much of its history, the plan relied on contributions to pay benefits. By 1996,

2001-500: The Windows operating system , automatically and simultaneously signing into the network as the user logs into their Windows account. Organizations can also integrate their Microsoft Office Communications Server and Active Directory with the service. In December 2011, Microsoft released an XMPP interface to the Messenger service. As part of a larger effort to rebrand many of its Windows Live services, Microsoft began referring to

2070-594: The "MSN" name, such as the Windows Messenger client included with Windows XP , which was originally intended to be a streamlined version of MSN Messenger, free of advertisements and integrated into Windows. Nevertheless, the company continued to offer more upgrades to MSN Messenger until the end of 2005, when all previous versions of MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger were superseded by a new program, Windows Live Messenger , as part of Microsoft's launch of its Windows Live online services. For several years,

2139-489: The 1997 Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Act to oversee and invest the funds contributed to and held by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). CPP Investments is one of the world's largest investors in private equity , having invested over US$ 28.1 billion between 2010 and 2014 alone. Despite being a Crown corporation, CPPIB is not considered a sovereign wealth fund because it operates at arm's length from

Microsoft Messenger service - Misplaced Pages Continue

2208-628: The Android platform. Skype disabled access to Skype by Fring users in July 2010. Nimbuzz discontinued support of Skype on request in October 2010. Before and during the Microsoft acquisition, Skype withdrew licensing from several third parties producing software and hardware compatible with Skype. The Skype for Asterisk product from Digium was withdrawn as "no longer available for sale". The Senao SN358+ long-range (10–15 km) cordless phone

2277-530: The Board considers environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues/factors from a risk/return point of view and encourages companies to adopt policies and practices that enhance long-term financial performance. John Graham is the current Chief Executive Officer of the CPPIB, replacing Mark Machin on February 26, 2021. Mark Machin resigned after traveling to the United Arab Emirates to receive

2346-503: The CPP Fund which excludes the short-term cash required to pay current benefits. ³Increased fund value due to worker and employer CPP contributions not needed to pay current benefits. The negative investment return amounted to $ 303 million CAD. In 2009 executives of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board took a 31.4% cut in their bonuses after questions were raised about the level of compensation at

2415-402: The CPP and invests them like a typical large fund manager would. The CPP reserve fund seeks to achieve at least the projected return ( inflation -adjusted) needed to help sustain the CPP , a rate set at 4.0% by 2017 in the CPP actuary's report, starting from 3.2% in 2011. As indicated in its Financial Highlights for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, the CPP reserve fund averaged 4.2% return in

2484-521: The CPPIB's mandate to maximize investment returns without undue risk of loss, they pursue a value-added strategy that seeks to deliver returns over and above a market-based benchmark over the long term. That benchmark is called the CPP Reference Portfolio and under reasonable capital market assumptions, it can generate the long-term 4.0% real rate of return required to help sustain the CPP. The CPPIB reserve fund receives its funds from

2553-539: The Chinese government used to repress Uyghurs in China's western Xinjiang region. CPPIB CEO Mark Machin stated that the holdings are part of indices which CPPIB invests in and that those investments had been red-flagged for potential future divestment. The firm's former CEO Mark Machin resigned following a controversy surrounding his choice to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the United Arab Emirates , whilst Canada

2622-660: The Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A Skype user can have local numbers in any of these countries, with calls to the number charged at the same rate as calls to fixed lines in

2691-744: The Mojis collection. Later that year, Gurdeep Singh Pall, Corporate Vice President of Skype, announced that Microsoft had acquired the technology from Talko. In July 2016, Skype introduced an early Alpha version of a new Skype for Linux client, built with WebRTC technology, after several petitions asked Microsoft to continue development for Linux. In September of that year, Skype updated their iOS app with new features, including an option to call contacts on Skype through Siri voice commands. In October of that year, Microsoft launched Skype for Business for Mac. In February 2017, Microsoft announced plans to discontinue its Skype Wi-Fi service globally. The application

2760-638: The Skype technology relies on the Global Index P2P protocol belonging to the Joltid Ltd. corporation. The main difference between Skype and standard VoIP clients is that Skype operates on a peer-to-peer model (originally based on the Kazaa software ), rather than the more usual client-server model (note that the very popular Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) model of VoIP is also peer-to-peer, but implementation generally requires registration with

2829-486: The United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, and Finland. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that, for the purposes of section 255 of the Telecommunications Act , Skype is not an "interconnected VoIP provider". As a result, the U.S. National Emergency Number Association recommends that all VoIP users have an analog line available as a backup. In 2019, Skype added an option to blur

Microsoft Messenger service - Misplaced Pages Continue

2898-574: The Universal Windows Platform and runs on various Windows 10-related systems, including Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , Windows phones, and Microsoft HoloLens . Microsoft still offers the older Skype 8, which is Win32-based and runs on all systems from Windows XP (which is otherwise unsupported by Microsoft) to the most recent release of Windows 10. In late 2017, this version was upgraded to Skype 12.9, in which several features were both removed and added. Skype formerly provided

2967-456: The background in a video chat interface using AI algorithms purely done using software, despite a depth-sensing camera not being present in most webcams. In 2023, Skype added the Bing AI chatbot to the platform for users who had access to the chatbot. Users may have more than one account; it is not possible to count users, only accounts. The volume of international traffic routed via Skype

3036-559: The business at $ 2.92 billion. In May 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $ 8.5 billion and used it to replace their Windows Live Messenger . As of 2011, most of the development team and 44% of all the division's employees were in Tallinn and Tartu , Estonia . Skype originally featured a hybrid peer-to-peer and client–server system. It became entirely powered by Microsoft-operated supernodes in May 2012; in 2017, it changed from

3105-637: The business-to-business accommodation wholesaler Hotelbeds for a purchase price of around €1.3 billion. In October 2019, CPPIB announced to invest alongside KKR in acquiring stake in German Axel Springer SE . CPPIB's financial commitment will be at least €500 million. The performance and the market value of the CPP Fund is reported on a quarterly basis. Investments held by the CPP Fund include equities, fixed income (primarily government bonds), and inflation-sensitive assets (real estate, inflation-linked bonds and infrastructure). The CPPIB

3174-564: The country. Skype supports conference calls, video chats, and screen sharing between 25 people at a time for free, which then increased to 50 on 5 April 2019. Skype does not provide the ability to call emergency numbers , such as 112 in Europe, 911 in North America, 999 in the UK or 100 in India and Nepal. However, as of December 2012, there is limited support for emergency calls in

3243-608: The crown corporation. As worldwide concern for global climate change implications increasingly call on institutional divestment from fossil fuels, CPPIB has also been criticized for failing to do so, both on climate grounds and financial loss. In May 2019, Conservative MP Tom Kmiec ( Calgary Shepard ) criticized the CPPIB during a meeting of the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance for its indirect investments in two Chinese firms, Hikvision and Dahua Technology , which supply surveillance technology to

3312-624: The default messaging app for Windows 8.1 , replacing the Windows 8 Messaging app at the time, and was pre-installed on every device that came with or upgraded to 8.1. In a month-long transition from 8 to 30 April 2013, Microsoft discontinued two of its own products in favor of Skype, including its Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service, although Messenger continued to be available in mainland China until October 2014. On 11 November 2014, Microsoft announced that in 2015, its Lync product would be replaced by Skype for Business , combining

3381-450: The features of Lync and the consumer Skype software. Organizations that used it could switch their users between the default Skype for Business interface and the Lync interface. On 12 August 2013, Skype released the 4.10 update for Apple iPhone and iPad apps that allowed HD quality video for iPhone 5 and fourth-generation iPads. On 20 November 2014, Microsoft Office's team announced that

3450-414: The federal government had determined that the CPP as then constituted was unsustainable. Changes were made to the plan, gradually increasing the contribution rate to its current 9.9% and creating the CPP Investment Board. Under the direction of then Minister of Finance Paul Martin , the CPP Investment Board was created by an Act of Parliament in 1997 as an independent, but accountable, body to monitor

3519-413: The funds held by the Canada Pension Plan. The CPP Investment Board began its investing program in 1999, establishing the CPP Reserve Fund to hold investment earnings and CPP contributions not needed to pay current pensions. It reports quarterly to the public on its performance, has a professional board of directors to oversee the operations of the CPP reserve fund, and also to plan changes in direction. As

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3588-402: The integrated applications did not satisfy most users' needs and announced that they and the desktop client would eventually be replaced with a new UWP application, which was released as a preview version for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update and dubbed as the stable version with the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update. The latest version of Skype for Windows is Skype 11, which is based on

3657-435: The new service focuses on mobile video messaging between individuals and groups. Skype uses URIs as skype:USER?call for a call. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board ( CPPIB ; French : Office d'investissement du régime de pensions du Canada ), operating as CPP Investments ( French : Investissements RPC ), is a Canadian Crown corporation established by way of

3726-529: The official name for the service remained .NET Messenger Service, as indicated on its official network status web page, though Microsoft rarely used the name to promote the service. Because the main client used to access the service became known as Windows Live Messenger , Microsoft started referring to the entire service as the Windows Live Messenger Service in its support documentation in the mid-2000s. The service can integrate with

3795-500: The past 5 years, and a 7.4% return in the past 10 years, above the sum of projected Canadian inflation rates and the 4.0% target identified by the CPP Actuary report, or 6.3% in nominal basis, that is required for CPP contribution sustainability. The CPP total assets are projected to reach the following levels according to the 2021 actuarial report: (in assets): The strategies used to achieve these targets are: CPPIB, as part of

3864-472: The purchase. The acquisition was completed on 13 October 2011. Microsoft began integrating the Skype service with its own products. Along with taking over the development of existing Skype desktop and mobile apps , it developed a dedicated client app for its then-newly released, touch-focused Windows 8 and Windows RT operating systems, which were made available from Windows Store when the then-new OS launched on 26 October 2012. The following year, it became

3933-409: The quarter, up to 50% since the last quarter. On 15 January 2014, TeleGeography estimated that Skype-to-Skype international traffic has gone up to 36% in 2013 to 214 billion minutes. As of March 2020, Skype was used by 100 million people at least once a month and by 40 million people each day. At end March 2020 there was a 70% increase in the number of daily users from the previous month, due to

4002-407: The return on investment of the contributions. The portion of CPP Reserve Fund growth due to CPP contributions varies from year to year, but have shown a slight decrease in the past 3 years. The historical growth with the investment performance is tabulated as follows: ¹Assets are as at the period end date (March 31). ²Commencing in fiscal 2007, the rate of return reflects the performance of

4071-448: The service as simply Messenger in 2012. Microsoft offered the following instant messaging clients that connected to the Messenger service: A 2007 analysis of Messenger's Microsoft Notification Protocol , which is unencrypted , concluded that its design "did not follow several principles of designing secure systems", resulting in a "plethora of security vulnerabilities "; these vulnerabilities were demonstrated by successfully spoofing

4140-407: The user interfaces of apps to make text-based messaging more prominent than voice calling. Skype for Windows, iOS, Android, Mac and Linux all received significant visual overhauls at this time. Users with legacy Skype accounts were able to retain their usernames, while new users are no longer able to manually choose a username. New user registrations associated with a Microsoft account are assigned

4209-482: Was $ 1.8 billion and the total gross value of the properties was $ 4.8 billion. In May 2015, Unibail-Rodamco revealed it had signed an agreement with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to sell its 46.1 percent stake in German shopping mall operator MFI AG for €394 million. In May 2015, the sale of a joint 70% investment with BC Partners in U.S. cable television operator Suddenlink for over US$ 9 Bn to Altice

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4278-470: Was also announced. The interest had been acquired in a 2012 leveraged buyout . In June 2015, CPPIB announced it would acquire GE Capital 's private equity lending portfolio for $ 12 billion. In October 2015, CPPIB announced plans to acquire Encana 's Denver-Julesberg Basin Colorado oil and gas assets for $ 900 million (US). The deal, with Denver-based partner, private equity firm The Broe Group, having

4347-422: Was complete. Third-party developers, such as Truphone , Nimbuzz , and Fring , previously allowed Skype to run in parallel with several other competing VoIP/IM networks (Truphone and Nimbuzz provide TruphoneOut and NimbuzzOut as a competing paid service) in any Symbian or Java environment. Nimbuzz made Skype available to BlackBerry users, and Fring provided mobile video calling over Skype as well as support for

4416-455: Was delisted, and the service itself became non-functional from 31 March 2017. On 5 June 2017, Microsoft announced its plans to revamp Skype with similar features to Snapchat , allowing users to share temporary copies of their photos and video files. In late June 2017, Microsoft rolled out their latest update for iOS, incorporating a revamped design and new third-party integrations, with platforms including Gfycat , YouTube , and UpWorthy . It

4485-431: Was discontinued due to loss of licenses to participate in the Skype network as peers. In combination, these two products made it possible to create roaming cordless mesh networks with a robust handoff. Skype uses a proprietary Internet telephony ( VoIP ) network called the Skype protocol . The protocol has not been made publicly available by Skype, and official applications using the protocol are also proprietary. Part of

4554-422: Was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström , from Sweden , and Janus Friis , from Denmark . The software was created by Estonians Ahti Heinla , Priit Kasesalu , Jaan Tallinn , and Toivo Annus . Friis and Annus are credited with the idea of reducing the cost of voice calls by using a P2P protocol like that of Kazaa . An early alpha version was created and tested in spring 2003, and the first public beta version

4623-578: Was not well-received, with numerous negative reviews and complaints that the new client broke existing functionality. Skype later removed this "makeover". In December 2017, Microsoft added "Skype Interviews", a shared code editing system for those wishing to hold job interviews for programming roles. In April 2017, Microsoft eventually moved the service from a peer-to-peer to a central server based system, enabling cloud-based storage of text messages/pictures and temporary 30-day storage of videos/file attachments/voice messages/call recordings. It also adjusted

4692-455: Was released on 29 August 2003. In June 2005, Skype entered an agreement with Polish web portal Onet.pl for an integrated offering on the Polish market. On 12 September 2005, eBay Inc. agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA for approximately US$ 2.5 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration. On 1 September 2009, eBay announced it

4761-479: Was selling 65% of Skype to Silver Lake , Andreessen Horowitz , and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for US$ 1.9 billion, valuing Skype at US$ 2.75 billion. On 14 July 2011, Skype partnered with Comcast to bring its video chat service to Comcast subscribers via HDTV sets. On 17 June 2013, Skype released a free video messaging services for Windows, Mac OS, iOS, iPadOS, Android, and BlackBerry. Between 2017 and 2020, Skype collaborated with PayPal to provide

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