Who owns Skype?
Skype is owned by Microsoft (the United States, NASDAQ: MSFT), which has owned the brand since 13 October 2011.[1]
The Skype consumer service was due to end on 5 May 2025.
Evidence: Microsoft Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-07-29, SEC EDGAR, 29 July 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Microsoft Corporation verified
- Owned since
- Owner HQ
- 🇺🇸 United States, Redmond, Washington
- Origin
- 🇪🇪 Estonia, Tallinn
- Founded
- 2003
- Category
- Internet & digital › Digital services › Email & messaging
- Parent ticker
- NASDAQ: MSFT
- Last verified
- · 2 sources
About Skype
Skype was built in Estonia in 2003 and made international calling effectively free, which cost telecoms operators enormous revenue. Microsoft bought it from eBay and a private consortium in 2011 for $8.5 billion, and retired the consumer service in 2025 in favour of Teams.
How often Microsoft names Skype in its annual report
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named less often than it was three years earlier.
Ownership timeline of Skype
Where Skype sits in Microsoft
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Microsoft ownership tree →
See the full Microsoft brand portfolio (15) →
Other brands owned by Microsoft
Microsoft controls 15 brands on Brandtree, 7 of them in internet & digital.
Also in internet & digital
Other brands in email & messaging, and who owns them
The 18 brands in email & messaging on Brandtree belong to 14 owners. The largest is Snap, with 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Messenger | Meta | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Firefox Relay | Mozilla | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Bitmoji | Snap | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Mail.ru Email | VK | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Gmail | Alphabet | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Yahoo Mail | Apollo | 🇺🇸 United States |
| KakaoTalk | Kakao | 🇰🇷 South Korea |
| LINE | LY Corporation | 🇯🇵 Japan |
About the owner: Microsoft
Microsoft is a publicly listed company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, United States, founded in 1975. Brandtree records 15 brands under its control, and it is listed as NASDAQ: MSFT.
Microsoft was founded in 1975 writing a BASIC interpreter for an early hobbyist computer and became dominant by licensing an operating system to every PC maker rather than building the machines. It has since bought several of the largest consumer internet properties, including the biggest acquisition in the history of video games.
🇪🇪 Skype and other Estonian brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 18 brands that began in Estonia. 4 of them (22%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Skype among them.
- A. Le Coq — Olvi 🇫🇮
- Caribba — Liviko 🇪🇪
- Delice — TKM Grupp 🇪🇪
- Maks & Moorits — Atria 🇫🇮
- Port of Tallinn — Tallinna Sadam 🇪🇪
- R-kiosk — Reitan Retail 🇳🇴
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Skype?
The parent company of Skype is Microsoft, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is Skype Estonian or American?
Skype originated in Estonia in 2003, but it is owned today by Microsoft, which is headquartered in the United States. So Skype is an Estonian-origin brand under American ownership.
Since when has Microsoft owned Skype?
Microsoft has owned Skype since 13 October 2011.
Is Skype still owned by Microsoft?
Yes. As of 2 October 2026, Skype is still owned by Microsoft. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (2) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Microsoft Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-07-29 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 10-K, published 29 July 2026; retrieved 16 September 2026.
- [2] The next chapter: moving from Skype to Microsoft Teams — Microsoft Corporation, Official press release, published 28 February 2025; retrieved 2 October 2026.
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