The announcement stretched back to May, but it took a while for approval. Antitrust regulators in the U.S. and the European Union have approved the deal.
Skype will operate as a new business division within Microsoft.
Microsoft also announced that it will continue to develop Skype for other platforms--Android, Mac OS, and (of course) Linux. The company also reassured users that the Skype user-experience would not change--conforming to Microsoft design sensibility.