Skype was one of the first and biggest tech firms to bring international recognition to Estonia, a little after a decade after independence was restored, and, as such, the many other tech "unicorns" which have followed are heirs to Skype – indeed some of them were started by former Skype employees.

Delfi reported the latest version of Skype, which comes bundled with Microsoft Windows – Microsoft obtained Skype in 2011 – includes a notification stating: "Starting in May, Skype will no longer be available," and referring users to MS Teams to continue any functions they had used Skype for.

Skype announced on its X account Friday afternoon that: "Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available."

"Over the coming days you can sign in to Microsoft Teams Free with your Skype account to stay connected with all your chats and contacts. Thank you for being part of Skype," the statement added.

Starting in May 2025, Skype will no longer be available. Over the coming days you can sign in to Microsoft Teams Free with your Skype account to stay connected with all your chats and contacts. Thank you for being part of Skype pic.twitter.com/EZ2wJLOQ1a

— Skype (@Skype) February 28, 2025

The emergence of competing video calling and messenger apps, not only MS Teams but also Zoom, WhatsApp, and others, meant Skype's user base had dropped to 36 million by 2020, from a peak of 660 million in 2011.

Many Estonian and other engineers and developers — known as the "Skype mafia" — cut their teeth with Skype from its small beginnings through to its growth into a billion-dollar business.

Skype was founded in 2003 by Swedish entrepreneur Niklas Zennström and Danish entrepreneur Janus Friis, with the initial code written by Estonians Jaan Tallinn, Ahti Heinla, and Priit Kasesalu, and was initially known as "Skyper."

Tech leader Sten Tamkivi headed Skype Estonia from 2005 to 2012, while Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus was the company's first registered employee, back in 2003; the company's headquarters in the Mustamäe district of Tallinn also proved a popular employer of expats in Estonia.

E-commerce multinational eBay acquired Skype for US$2.6 billion in 2005 and divested 70 percent of its holding four years later for US$2.75 billion to an investor group named Silver Lake, which included some of Skype's co-founders.

In 2011, eBay and Silver Lake sold the company to Microsoft for US$8.5 billion, with Microsoft launching Teams, a collaboration platform built on Skype's architecture, in 2017.

In its early days, Skype had been one of the first widely used VoIP platforms used to make phone calls, including paid calls (to non-Skype numbers) worldwide.

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