Just last week our own Cynthia Boris posted “Facebook to Buy Skype? Say It Ain’t So!” Well, Cynthia, it ain’t so but since the real buyer is Microsoft we’ll have to see how you feel about that one.

Microsoft has officially announced their purchase of Skype after the rumor mill had all but confirmed it late yesterday. The price was a rather substantial $8.5 billion in cash.

As with most purchases of this magnitude (especially by Microsoft who has been out of the major M & A picture for quite some time now) opinions about the general goodness or sheer awfulness of the move abounds. For the record, my thoughts are if Microsoft simply owns it, leaves it alone and just is most interested in keeping it out of the hands of the Zuckerberg’s and Page’s of the world that’s fine by me. If they, however, give it the Microsoft treatment (in other words, eff it up because it’s one of those Internet thingys) well then that would suck.

Here at Marketing Pilgrim we like Pew studies. They are among the few that seem to be less about promotion and more about finding out the truth.

The latest study, Navigating News Online, shows that Google is still the top influencer for news sites. What is interesting to note though is that while it is still far behind, Facebook is making its move on Google’s domain.

Now a look at Facebook.

Right now the numbers don’t cry out real competition but it’s hard not to recognize that Facebook has momentum on its side. As a result, Google is probably more than a little nervous.