The tech giant Microsoft has announced it will purchase the online phone calling service Skype for $8.5 billion, in its most expensive acquisition to date. Microsoft is expected to gain roughly 600 million worldwide users as a result of the deal. Skype CEO Tony Bates helped announced the sale.

Tony Bates: “We think there’s a tremendous amount of opportunities as we look forward. We think this allows us to extend, not from hundreds of millions, to literally billions. We believe that this is a platform and a set of services that can reach everyone on the planet.”