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Microsoft To Shut Down Skype After 21-Years Of Service 

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This week, Microsoft announced that calling, video conferencing, and messaging service Skype will shut down on May 5th after 21-years of service. Microsoft is urging current Skype users to move to their other platform, Teams. 

Skype was known as one of the first services that allowed people to call each other without paying a phone company. In today’s modern world, there are a multitude of ways for people to video chat with one another, so the company has become rather obsolete. 

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“We’ve learned a lot from Skype over the years that we’ve put into Teams as we’ve evolved teams over the last seven to eight years,” Jeff Teper, president of Microsoft 365 collaborative apps and platforms, said to CNBC. 

“But we felt like now is the time because we can be simpler for the market, for our customer base, and we can deliver more innovation faster just by being focused on Teams.”

Microsoft said that current Skype users will be able to use their Skype credentials to log into, and use, Teams, and their contacts and chats will also be transferred over. Users will be able to export their Skype data. 

“This is obviously a big, big moment for us, and we’re certainly very grateful in many ways,” Teper said. 

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“Skype pioneered audio and video calling on the web for many, many people.”

Microsoft initially acquired Skype back in 2011 for $8.5 billion from eBay. At the time, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer said that:

“Microsoft and Skype together will bring together hundreds of millions or billions of consumers and empower them to communicate in new and interesting ways. At that point in time, Skype had about 170 million active users every month. 

Around the same time, Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime began to become very popular and widely used. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, video chatting became the norm for communication, however, many workplaces utilized zoom, as well as traditional platforms like FaceTime. 

In 2023, Microsoft stated that Skype had around 36 million daily active users, a 40 million decrease from March 2020. 

“I think a good write-up of the history of the thing would mark the shift to mobile and cloud as a significant change in the communications category,” Teper said.

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President Biden Supports Ceasefire In Call To Israeli Prime Minister

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President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this Monday, marking their second phone call within a week. The president has expressed his support of a ceasefire after receiving pressure from fellow Democrats who are urging him to do more to stop the senseless violence. 

“Mr. Biden reiterated his firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks. Mr. Biden also encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians.” 

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According to a readout of the call, “Mr. Biden expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed U.S. engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end. Additionally, the two leaders agreed that they and their teams would remain in close touch.”

The White House and Biden Administration has been facing massive amounts of pressure from the public as well who have been speaking out against the Israeli airstrikes on Palestine as the number of dead and wounded Palestinians far outnumbers the number in Israel; even worse Palestine’s population is 60% children. 

This past weekend thousands of protesters gathered all around the US, and world, in support of the Palestinians who are being forced to live in violent conditions. 30 Democratic senators called for an immediate ceasefire as well. 

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“There isn’t really a path to peace without the United States playing a role, and so I hope the Biden team’s going to be very active over the next few days to try to wind down these hostilities,” Senator Chris Murphy said. 

Senator Bernie Sanders, wrote in The New York Times over the weekend that “the U.S. should stop supporting Netanyahu.” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to question if U.S. aid has contributed to violence in Palestine. 

“Our role as White House, as the federal government, is to play a constructive role in diplomacy, to have intensive, quiet discussions with leaders in the region,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Palestinian diplomat Maen Rashid Areikat said that the president needs to do much more if he actually cares about the well being of the innocent people being murdered violently overseas due to militant conflict that has nothing to do with them. 

“The United States and the international community need to work more diligently to rein in Israel and tell them enough is enough.”