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Saturday 21 May 2011

Mercury News interview: Tony Bates, Skype CEO - San Jose Mercury News

Tony Bates has had an eventful seven months as Skype's new CEO.

The company has consolidated its local offices to Palo Alto, announced plans to hire hundreds of new workers, added a video calling feature to its iPhone and Android applications and acquired a competitor, all while preparing for a planned public offering. To cap it off, the Internet calling company announced earlier this month that instead of going public, it had agreed to be acquired by Microsoft for a whopping $8.6 billion in cash.

As part of the merger, which still has to be approved by regulators, Bates, a former Cisco (CSCO) executive, will become the president of Microsoft's new Skype division and report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer. Bates will be charged with growing Skype's business and will help oversee efforts to connect Skype with Microsoft's other products.

more at: Mercury News interview: Tony Bates, Skype CEO - San Jose Mercury News

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