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NEW YORK -- Microsoft has agreed to buy the popular Internet telephone service Skype for $8.5 billion in the biggest deal in the software maker's 36-year history. 微软宣布以85亿美元收购互联网语音通话服务提供商Skype，这一并购是微软36年的历史上最大数额的单笔并购交易。 Buying Skype would give Microsoft a potentially valuable communications tool as it tries to make a bigger splash on the Internet and become a bigger force in the increasingly important smartphone market. 微软试图在互联网界引起轰动，并意欲成为日益重要的智能手机市场的巨头，而这次的收购带给了微软这个潜在的高价值通讯工具。 The sellers include eBay and private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz. 此次，微软是从易趣、美国美国私募股权公司银湖（Silver Lake Partners）和安德森-霍洛维茨基金会（Andreessen Horowitz）手中购得的Skype。 Skype boasts about 663 million users worldwide. According to regulatory documents, Skype users made 207 billion minutes of voice and video calls last year. 据称，Skype在全球拥有6.63亿的用户，去年Skype用户的在线语音和视频通话时间高达2070亿分钟。 Most people use Skype's free calling services, which has made it difficult for the service to make money since entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis started the company in 2003. | 
