Acquisition of Skype by Microsoft --- a strategic decision??Microsoft- Company history and current situation:Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest software companies in the world headquartered in Washington, USA with annual turnover exceeding 50 billion dollars. The company's core business is the development, manufacturing and licensing of software products, including operating systems, software development tools, enterprise and consumer applications, server applications, and Internet software technologies and services. Microsoft was founded in the late 1970s by Bill Gates and Paul Allen who sold BASIC, the first computer language program, to MITS computers, their first customer. In 1981 Microsoft, Inc. was formed and sold software to IBM, the dominant mainframe company. Since 1983, Microsoft has been led by Bill Gates; President of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world and most famous businessman. Microsoft has managed to place at least one of its products on virtually every PC in the world, setting industry standards and defining markets in the process. Microsoft worked closely with Apple during the development of Apple's Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984. Revolutionary in its design, the Mac featured an icon-based graphical user interface instead of the typed commands used by the IBM PC. This made its programs simple, easy to learn, and simple to use, even for computer novices. Microsoft introduced the Mac version of Word, BASIC, and the Multiplan spreadsheet program, which quickly made Microsoft the leading provider of Mac applications. Revenues jumped from $50 million in 1983 to nearly $100 million in 1984 (James 2004). Bill Gates and his colleagues moved from the corporate base... middle of paper..., T. (2011). May 10, 2011: The day Skype died. Available: http://toddcarothers.com/2011/05/may-10th-2011-the-day-skype-died/. Last accessed 22 June 201115. Jagger, S. (2007). eBay admits it made the wrong decision on how much it paid to take over Skype. Available: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2570267.ece. Last accessed 23 June 2011.16. Global Future Report. (2000). Scenario Based Decision Making - Technique. Available: http://www.globalfuture.com/scenario1.htm. Last accessed 22 June 2011.17. Zahorsky, D. (2011). Scenario planning for tomorrow. Available: http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/newseconomy/a/scenario_2.htm. Last accessed 21 June 2011.18. IRM. (2002). A risk management standard. Available: http://www.theirm.org/publications/documents/Risk_Management_Standard_030820.pdf. Last access June 23rd 2011.