The minute your company/application/service depends on something, that something becomes your weakest link.
From the announcement, Skype decided that they will no longer pursue the Extras market. Fine. What was the backup plan for the company? Surely they must have thought of that happening even if it seemed improbable at the time. They 'gambled' with the Extras since there was never a guarantee that that service will continue. Very smart move to reach an audience of 20 million or more but it backfired on them :(
As far as the patent is concerned, they could have researched a bit more regarding their service but then again everyone sues everyone about a weird patent nowadays...
