I believe that very little of the MS/Skype deal is about the technology behind Skype. With 8.5 billions Microsoft could have developed the same technology or even a better technology, and it's very likely that they will completely change it in the future to better integrate Skype with their other products. The real value of Skype is in its user base and the significant number of companies that use Skype as a valuable business resource. That is potentially a much more profitable user base than that of Live Messenger and the two products together now represent a large majority in the entire instant messaging marketplace.