Microsoft just bought Skype – for US$8.5bn

Think of the possibilities: VoIP calls on your Xbox 360, controlled via Kinect; a native VoIP app for Windows Phone 7; your desktop Skype client kept shiny by system updates…

All this is about to become a reality after Microsoft bought the world’s biggest consumer VoIP company for the Skype-high price of US$8.5bn. Nothing’ll happen just yet – but Skype’s top brass are coming as part of the merger and we should start to see some action next year.