Skype

Skype, born in 2003 from the minds of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, revolutionized communication by making the world’s long-distance phone bills disappear overnight. What started as a quirky little startup in Estonia quickly turned into a global phenomenon, catching the eye of eBay, which bought it in 2005 for a cool $2.6 billion, only to later regret the impulse buy. Microsoft swooped in to acquire Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion, a move that looked visionary at the time but has since raised eyebrows as the platform struggled to stay relevant in a world dominated by Zoom and WhatsApp. Despite its fall from grace, Skype’s legacy remains: it was the original disruptor, making video calls as common as coffee breaks, even if it now serves more as a cautionary tale of how tech giants can fumble the very innovations they were supposed to champion.