Will Skype be another Microsoft license gotcha?

After Microsoft acquired Skype previously this month for $8.5 billion, most of the questions revolved around how Skype's IM, voice and video calling features will fit into Microsoft enterprise products just as Outlook and Lync.

Muscarella compares Skype to Microsoft's 2006 acquisition of Softricity. This paved the way for App-V, an application virtualization technology in other words rolled into MDOP, Microsoft's suite of on-premise PC management tools for clients with an enterprise agreement.

Like most big tech vendors, Microsoft is making an aggressive push into the mobile and unified communications spaces, with Windows Phone 7 and Lync, respectively. The Skype acquisition is a great way to round out the UC features within Office, says Muscarella, however he adds that many big companies already have UC products in place, whether it be through Cisco WebEx or Microsoft Lync.

It's not clear but how Microsoft will fit Skype into its enterprise product line or its enterprise agreements. Muscarella predicts that Skype will continue to be free for consumers and small businesses, nevertheless warns enterprises that Skype may be snuck into a on the spur of the moment more expensive CAL, even if it's a dollar here and a dollar there.

The mainstream attention the acquisition received

Despite the mainstream attention the acquisition received and Skype's popularity with consumers, it all in all ends up being just another innovation that Microsoft can roll into an EA to potentially impose added or unnecessary charges on a business.

Shane O'Neill covers Microsoft, Windows, Operating Systems, Productivity Apps and Online Services for CIO.com. Follow Shane on Twitter @smoneill. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Shane at soneill@cio.com