One of the big questions when Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 billion was what would happen to Lync, the Redmond company’s unified communication service for companies.
This morning, Microsoft delivered at least a partial answer, announcing plans to connect Skype with Lync for instant-messaging, voice calls and presence information. The connection will be available to all Lync users by June, according to a blog post by Tony Bates, the president of the Microsoft Skype division.
He writes, “We’re proud to announce Lync-Skype connectivity for presence, IM and voice will be available to all Lync users by June. This move will begin to enable what we call B2X. B2X places the focus of business communication on enabling human interactions. B2X puts people first and looks at communications in a unified way, not as disparate technology silos focused on one task or protocol.”
Video calling between Skype and Lync is expected to come later. The initial Skype-Lync connection will be demonstrated this morning at the Microsoft Lync conference in San Diego, where Bates is speaking right now. (Live stream available here.)
