As reported by the Wall Street Journal, for the first time in Microsoft’s history, it has proposed to buy internet telephone service Skype. And this 8.5 billion US dollars (£5 billion) worth acquisition is likely to close today itself.

Based and founded in Luxembourg, using Skype, 663 million users can make voice or video calls over the internet. Not only in their own country but in any part of the world now, people can keep in touch. Skype is privately-owned by eBay also.

By making this deal, Microsoft moves one step ahead to its internet rivals Google and Facebook. With 8.8 million paying customers for every month, Skype at the same time also offers people with an opportunity to make free calls anywhere around the World. But one thing to remember is that these calls are bounded to Skype users only.

According to reports of regulatory documents, the amount of call time on Skype's network as calculated last year was 207 billion minutes.

It’s quite strange for many that despite for being such a popular site, the revenue that company generates is on a quite lower side if compared to its popularity. But then the reason behind is, its concept of free calls.