Skype Blogs

We're excited to share the news that Skype's CEO, Josh Silverman, has been invited by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) to deliver the keynote address of its annual Leaders in Technology Dinner (LIT), to be held at the 2010 International CES® in Las Vegas.

The (invitation-only) dinner, which honors the technologists, entrepreneurs and policymakers instrumental in furthering technology innovation, is scheduled for 6:30 PM PT on Friday, January 8, 2010, at The Venetian.

During his keynote, Josh will be sharing his vision for the future of Skype, which already connects over half a billion people around the globe through voice and video conversations that span oceans and time zones.

We hope to see you in Las Vegas at the show!

The Nokia N900 has Skype built-in – it’s totally integrated into the phone’s Maemo operating system, with no extra downloads required. You can make free Skype-to-Skype calls and IM on 3G or WiFi, and call phones abroad at great, low rates.

Mark Douglas, our product manager for the N900 here at Skype, reveals all in the video above. To get your hands on one today, head over to the Skype store. Update: seems to be pre-order only in the UK at least – sorry to keep you waiting!

A quick update from our busy team of translators: over the weekend, we launched a new version of our Arabic website. You can now buy subscriptions and Skype Credit, and check up on the details of your account, all in Arabic.

At Skype, we aim to build software for everyone, no matter where they are or what language they speak. Our new Arabic website takes us a bit closer to that goal.

Great news – we’ve closed the deal with the new investors.

The investor group is led by Silver Lake, and includes Andreessen Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Joltid Limited and our founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.

The deal valued Skype at $2.75B US, with eBay retaining approximately 30% of Skype, and the investor group led by Silver Lake controlling the remaining 70%.

Our journey continues: say hello to the future!

Milestones are significant for us, not just because they’re big numbers, but because they reflect the actions of people around the world using Skype to stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues. Right now, there are 20 million people around the world, saying hello (or bonjour, or hola, or 喂, or tere) to their parents across continents, having dinner with their spouses from hotel rooms across countries, and keeping an eye on their pets from across town.

But big numbers are hard to get our heads around – what does 20 million actually mean? We can think about it in terms of the number of families kept closer together, or the number of businesses saving money and staying ahead of the competition. Right now. The number of new babies being shown off to adoring grandparents, or the number of romances being kept alive. Right now.

In fact, in the 30 seconds since you started reading this, those 20 million people have made around 1,600 hours of free Skype-to-Skype calls and 200 hours of calls to landlines and mobiles. That’s a lot of people talking. Right now.

There is nothing better than spending time with family and friends during the holidays. This year, to bring holiday cheer to deployed US servicemen and women and their families, we’re delighted to kick off the Holiday Military Connection, a partnership with the USO which will connect US military personnel in the Pacific region with their families stateside.

On Thanksgiving Eve, Skype and the USO will host transcontinental holiday dinners via Skype video call. Dinner attendees will be able to see and hear each other, share a priceless holiday meal, laughs and even tears in real-time. Imagine watching your mom or dad carve the Thanksgiving turkey from across the globe

In addition to the dinners, troops and their families can make memories all season long via free calls made possible through the donation of our Unlimited World calling subscriptions to the 18 USO centers in the Pacific region.

We are so happy to work with the USO to bring the comforts of home to these extraordinary men and women. To learn more about the program, see how military families are using Skype to say connected or submit your own Skype story, visit the USO pages on the Skype website.

Innovation is at the heart of Skype's success. But it's not a one-off effort: we continue to invest in our capabilities to develop the world's best communications software.

Skype already employs some of the industry's leading engineers and technologists. Now, we are privileged to add Dr Jonathan Rosenberg, a telecom industry veteran and the co-author of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), as Skype's as Chief Technology Strategist. In this role, he will report to Skype's Chief Technology Officer, Daniel Berg, and will work with Skype's engineering teams worldwide.

Dr Rosenberg's leadership and expertise will help guide Skype's future technology strategies and architecture, an area where we're continuing to invest heavily.

Please join us in welcoming Jonathan to Skype

I have some very exciting news to share with you today. In the past couple of days, we and eBay have reached a settlement with Joltid regarding our dispute with them. This has extremely positive implications for us on three critical fronts:

• We will now have ownership of the software previously licensed from Joltid, so we’ll be in control of our technology future.
• All litigation against eBay, Skype and the investor group ends, so we’ll be free to concentrate all of our efforts on building the world’s greatest communications software.
• Joltid and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis will join the investor group and the Skype board with a 14% share in exchange for providing Joltid software and a significant capital investment, so we’ll benefit from their expertise, vision and continued commitment to making Skype a long-term success.

This is fantastic news for us, clearing the road ahead and making what was shaping up to be an exciting journey, an unbelievable journey.

Onwards!

More financial details in the press release.

A sneak peek at the ad – if you’re reading this post in an RSS reader, click through to skype.com/magic to see it in all its glory.

You may remember that we announced our partnership with CNN back in September - well, the second of our ads has now started appearing.

It’s the perfect way to introduce friends and family to the world of Skype on mobile phones. Just point them to skype.com/magic to find out more.

You can also follow @skypemobile on Twitter to catch up on all of the latest news from our mobile team. See you there

Great news for those of you who make calls to Inmarsat satellite phones - you can now call them using Skype.

Take advantage of our super-low rates: from just €1.80/$2.62/£1.64 per minute.

If you have loved ones stationed on ships or oil platforms, Skype can make it just that little bit easier to stay in touch. By making calls more affordable, you can spend that little bit longer catching up, sharing news and telling bedtime stories.

You can even call satellite phones from your mobile phone using a Skype To Go number - meaning that you can say goodnight to your partner while you're doing the grocery shopping, or just have a chat with them from a park bench on a sunny afternoon.

You'll need to buy Skype Credit to get started - you can pay for it using credit or debit cards, PayPal, bank transfers and vouchers from supermarkets and convenience stores, depending on where you live.

Let us know how you get on

A small connection fee applies to all calls to satellite phones.