Skype

The Skype video call and messaging service is shutting down today, 14 years after replacing Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger.

Skype was first released in August 2003 by a collective of Swedish, Danish, and Estonian developers and was sold to eBay two years later, in September 2005, which bought it for $2.6 billion.

FACTOIDS: Microsoft acquired the telecommunications platform in May 2011, paying $8.5 billion, and used it to replace its cross-platform instant messaging client, Windows Live Messenger. The company revealed in February 2023, when it unveiled an AI-powered Bing integration for the messaging service, that over 36 million people were using Skype daily to connect via video calls and chats.