Skype founder believes Microsoft can grow should it "do a good job" integrating the service
Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom feels it will be easy for Microsoft to capitalize on its recent $8.5 billion acquisition of the service should it expand it into mobile and focus on improving video calling features.
Speaking during an interview with Reuters at the e-G8 forum in Paris, Zennstrom said with the improvements being made with smartphones, Microsoft could grow as a company should it "do a good job" integrating the service; especially with the "huge opportunity," mobile and video has to offer.
"Skype's full potential hasn't been realized yet," he said. "I think that Microsoft has a huge opportunity to integrate it into a lot of their different services. Of course they have so many different assets. If they do a good job integrating Skype, the company can grow even more.
"We still all travel a lot for meetings because you can't match the intimate experience of seeing someone in person, even with Skype video calling. There is a lot more work to do on the core technology to improve quality of video calls."
Microsoft announced its acquisition of Skype last week, stating the program will support Xbox and Kinect, as well as “connect” Skype users on Xbox Live. The firm also revealed plans to “invest in and support” Skype," on “non-Microsoft platforms.”
Shares in Microsoft dropped 6 percent since the Skype acquisition deal was announced, despite the fact Skype currently has over 170 million users.