Microsoft gets paid, Android brings in more dough than Windows Phone

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This morning a report was released stating that Android puts more money in Microsoft’s bank than Windows phone. HTC, which runs Android on a number of its devices is required to pay Microsoft, $5 per unit sold, due to an out of court settlements involving patent violation. That being said, if HTC sells around 30 million devices, that would mean they would be paying Microsoft a grand total of (I’m sure our reader can do the math) $150 million. Now that’s a good chunk of cash just from HTC that’s going straight to company that owns the mobile platform, Windows Phone.
Now if you take the above information that was released by Citi analyst Walter Pritchard and compare it to Window Phone’s position, Android seems to be the money maker. Microsoft’s information says that Windows Phone has sold 2 million licenses. So at $15 a license, that would total to $30 million. Not quite the cash cow that Android seems to be.
Microsoft is making truck loads of cash from HTC, so it only make sense they would go after all the other Android device manufacturers, looking for a per unit fee, so as to get a cut of the profits across the board, as also reported by Walter Pritchard.

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Microsoft Receives $5 Per Phone HTC Sells

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Oh my goodness what a wacky deal we’ve got going on here. It seems that amongst a few other announcements on money and where it’s going in the world of Microsoft, a tiny tip has emerged that’s about to have the streets rolling with Hamiltons. That’s right, HTC day is still Microsoft’s pay day. According to Citi analyst Walter Pritchard, who released a large report on Microsoft earlier this morning, Microsoft gets $5 for every HTC phone running Android they sell.


This amount of cash is coming out of HTC’s pocket on the daily according to this report, Pritchard also noting that this situation is due to a settlement with HTC over intellectual property infringement. In addition to this, Pritchard’s report details how Microsoft is suing “other” Android phone makers for anywhere between $7.50 to $12.50 per device. Hot cash!
The analyst works out that a rough estimate of the cash Microsoft gets per Windows Phone license in licensing fees is $15 – this, with an admitted 2 million licenses sold thus far puts the official revenue on Windows Phone at $30 million. In comparison, the number of HTC devices shipped with Android on them is around 30 million – if HTC payed $5 per unit to Microsoft, that’d be $150 million in revenue.
This is all part of a 2010 patent settlement between HTC and Microsoft in which technologies are in use by the former for which the IP is owned by the latter. Bug bummer for all those who love the Dr Dre of this situation!
[via SlashGear]

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Microsoft pays $8.9 Billion for Skype

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Next time you use Skype on your Android phone remember is now Microsoft’s own.  Microsoft yesterday acquires Skype for $8.9 billion in cash. Yes, you read it right…. cash.
This will be Microsoft’s most expensive acquisition in years. The deal is quite interesting, though, given that Skype operations was almost $7 million negative last year and the company also carries a $686 million debt.
Microsoft, however, will be relying on 663 million users, 8.8 million of which are paying.
It is important to note that Skype was purchased from eBay in 2009 for $2.75 billion. Is Skype growth in less than 2 years worth $6 billion or Microsoft decided to make a bold purchase given that most of the latest Skype acquisition talks was speculating Facebook or Google?

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