Create an open culture where both teams, e.g. Information Democracy – Find ways to release information from silos and share data across business units.With these issues in mind, let’s look at how Microsoft and Skype could use collaboration to make this work: So, how do you tackle this? After all, you’ve paid several billion dollars. Remember, not everyone may see the benefit of this alliance. Information Silos – Getting access to codes bases is relatively easy but finding ways to extract information from skilled developers and Subject Matter Experts may not go so smoothly.For example, do they start skyping each other or use existing Microsoft communications tools? Communications – Making sure that both sides sing from the same hymn sheet is the first challenge for the PR departments then other divisions need to find practical ways to manage meetings and reporting structures.Internal Politics – Ownership is always an issue during mergers as power bases will inevitably change or be challenged.Integrating Technologies – the peer-to-peer technology of Skype needs to be assessed and merged into the development path for other Microsoft applications.

Different Cultures – blending different business cultures is always a challenges and getting the Skype team to believe in the Microsoft way of doing business may take some doing.If we put the financials aside for a moment and look at how this could work on the ground, a few issues arise. This brings us to the record-breaking deal between Microsoft and Skype. Remember when AOL and Time Warner merged to create the world’s greatest media empire? Or when eBay admitted that it had overpaid in its $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype in 2005 - eBay took a writedown of $1.4 billion.

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