I'm not sure how important of a mindshare property it is. I would guess most use...

tbassetto · on April 28, 2014

I beg to differ. Nowadays Skype is always inquiring people to convert their account to a Microsoft Account! The "Metro"/"Modern" version of Skype for Windows 8 even requires a Microsoft account.

gedrap · on April 29, 2014

Well, following that logic, Facebook owns thousands of web sites because they require FB account to login.

It seems obvious to us, but we are an exception. Most of the people just don't care.

wlesieutre · on April 29, 2014

The vast majority of those people had a facebook account anyway. Using Skype to push Microsoft accounts gets people to create MS accounts that they didn't have. I imagine there's a selected-by-default checkbox in that process along the lines of "Send me exciting news an announcements about Microsoft products!"

Soon to be followed with "HEY BUDDY, DID YOU KNOW OFFICE 365 WORKS ON ALL YOUR DEVICES? AND IT'S 10% OFF!"

eurleif · on April 29, 2014

Even if the mindshare isn't directly valuable to Microsoft, it's valuable to Google. Keeping Google from getting it should have been more important than squeezing every last penny out of Skype.