* Microsoft Corp, which has a small stake in Facebook, announced in May that it would acquire Skype for $8.5 billion. The deal received antitrust approval from the Federal Trade Commission in June, clearing the way for the deal to be finalized pending Department of Justice approval.
* Skype previously was controlled by private equity firm Silver Lake, which also counts Groupon and Zynga among its current portfolio companies.
* Online auction site eBay Inc bought Skype in September 2005. Silver Lake took control of Skype in November 2009.
* An average of 145 million Skype users connected per month in the fourth quarter of 2010.
* Skype users made 207 billion minutes worth of calls in 2010. Forty-two per cent of those calls used video.
* Skype and Microsoft already are expanding into markets competitive with Apple Inc. Skype and Microsoft announced a new service in late June that allows Android phone users to make free Skype video calls to other Skype contacts regardless of the mobile device being used — including the Apple iPhone.
* Skype announced in June a partnership with Comcast to bring Skype video chats to high-definition televisions via a broadband connection.
* At peak times, 30 million Skype users are logged in to the service.
* Skype was founded in 2003. Its headquarters is in Luxembourg.