More Topics:
Covington & Burling Advises Microsoft in $8.5B Skype Deal
Posted May 10, 2011
We Recommend...
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Covington & Burling LLP is advising Microsoft Corp. in its acquisition of Skype Global S.à.r.l., the leading Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion in cash.
Microsoft's purchase of Skype from the investor group led by Silver Lake is expected to increase the accessibility of real-time video and voice communications, benefiting both consumers and enterprise users.
The acquisition is the largest ever for Microsoft, the worldwide software leader founded in 1975. Skype, a pioneer in Internet communications, reported 170 million connected users and over 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010.
Under the agreement, Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft. Skype will support a wide array of Microsoft devices such as Xbox, Kinect, and Windows Phone. Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live, and other communities.
The Covington team, based in San Francisco, Brussels, London and Washington, was led by intellectual property partners Evan Cox and Bruce Deming. The team included associates Ingrid Rechtin, Bobby Lutzker, Brad Chernin and Paula Domingos (intellectual property and commercial), partner Yaron Dori, special counsel Miranda Cole and associate Elizabeth Canter (telecommunications), partners Dan Cooper and Henriette Tielemanns (data privacy), partner Lars Kjølbye (antitrust), and partner Michael Markman (patent).
Covington & Burling LLP, an international law firm, provides corporate, litigation, and regulatory expertise to enable clients to achieve their goals. Founded in 1919, the firm has more than 800 lawyers and offices in Beijing, Brussels, London, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC.
To find out more about the company in this article and to see if you
have business connections, click below:
blog comments powered by