Sometimes web-based services and sites get sold for eye-catching amounts of money. But Microsoft's proposal to buy Skype for $8.5 billion - yes, that's a "b" - caught even the most jaded techies ...

If you've used Microsoft's Skype in recent years, you've probably noticed that the user experience is less than ideal because of the pervasiveness of ads in the software. Fortunately, that's going to ...