I was curious myself why they didn't let the company IPO then buy it out. It seems that could have happened for far far less than 8 billion.<p>I guess the facebook preIPO buyout issue was there.
Microsoft perhaps overpaid for Skype, which is reminiscent of something that happened in the past.<p>Google wanted to acquire a 2.5%-5% stake in Facebook at a $10 billion valuation in 2006 or 2007 (forgot), but Microsoft came in for a 1.6% stake at a $15 billion valuation. It seems like Microsoft is always competing with Google to acquire a company (or a share of it), and as a result it ends up paying significantly above what Google offers.<p>In the end, the Facebook investment worked out for them but I'm not sure if it was the best decision at the time.<p>Perhaps Microsoft can do something with Skype.