Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has gained ownership of Qik as part of their acquisition of Skype. Skype acquired Qik for $150 million in January 2011. Qik designed software that allows people to capture and share video using a mobile device. Qik currently has an app for Android, iOS, Symbian, and BlackBerry. Qik has roughly 60 employees on their team and is based in Redwood City, California. [GeekWire]

Internet voice calling service Skype has bought a Qik, one of their biggest competitor for $150 million. The Qik team will be paid $100 million up front and $50 million will be in earn-out. It’s likely that Skype will discuss their strategy with the Qik acquisition at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Mobile video company Qik will be powering T-Mobile’s mobile video chat. Qik mobile video chat will be available on the myTouch 4G handset and it will allow people to have live two-way conversations. That is a pretty big win for the start-up, but it will definitely be a hit on their servers. Check out the full press release below:

Video chatting software and Ustream competitor Qik will be arriving on the Android operating system within the next month. Qik has been able to demonstrate full video screen calls between two Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets. However Qik will only be able to run on devices that use the ARM Cortex-A8 processor for now. These include the Samsung Galaxy S, the Motorola Droid, The Droid X, and the HTC EVO 4G. [UberGizmo]

Video streaming service Qik.com has hit a major milestone. Qik has hit 3.5 million users and is adding 500,000 new users every month. This is the first time that Qik unveiled some stats about their service said co-founder Bhaskar Roy. A major reason why Qik has grown rapidly is because they are being placed as a default application on many devices, including the HTC EVO 4G and the Nokia N97. Qik is projecting that they will be preloaded on 75 million devices next year. [TechCrunch]

Qik is a live video recording service that work with Amoi, AT&T, BlackBerry, DoCoMo, Dopod, HTC, iMate, Motorola, Nokia, O2, Orange, Palm, Qtek, Samsung, Softbank, Sony Ericsson, Sprint, Swisscom, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Vodafone mobile phones.  Now that the Apple iPhone has video recording capabilities, it would not be a surprise if Qik designs an iPhone application.  Qik has recently raised $5.5 million in funding from Quest Venture Partners and CampVentures.

As a result of the funding Marcus Ogawa of Quest joined the Qik board of directors and Justin Camp of CampVentures became a board observer.  The company raised about $9.5 million in total funding so far.  Other investors include Marc Benioff, Arjun Gupta, George Garrick, Marc Andreessen, and Ben Horowitz.  Qik is based in Redwood City, California and has about 38 employees.

“We as a society continue to ravenously consume engagement media. I feel strongly that mobile video is on the cusp of exploding into the mainstream. I believe Qik, with its support for many different mobile platforms and engagement options, is poised to lead this charge,” stated Marcus Ogawa of Quest.

[via VentureBeat]

Qik is an online live video streaming company that gained in popularity by those who attend conferences or events and want to embed videos in their blogs and websites.  Netscape veterans Both Netscape alumni Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz invested in Qik.  Both of them will also join the Qik Board of Directors. 

“We are thrilled to have Marc and Ben involved in Qik, both as investors and advisers,” stated Qik CEO Ramu Sunkara. “Marc is a true visionary and seasoned technology investor. He brings strong entrepreneurial and innovation experience to Qik. It is great to have them both on board to help us grow Qik and guide us on how we can change the way people communicate and share live experiences around the world.”

Qik also makes it possible to live stream video from cellphones.

Qik was started by Bhaskar Roy and Ramu Sunkara in December 2007.  Qik has raised over $4 million in total from previous investors.  The previous investors include Marc Benioff, Arjun Gupta, and George Garrick.  Earlier this month Qik began to support live video streaming via iPhone.

After working at Netscape together, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz launched Loudcloud, an Internet hosting company.  Loudcloud had an IPO in 2001 and then was later renamed Opsware.  Opsware was bought by HP for $1.6 billion.  Horowitz now works as the VP and General Manager of Business Technology Optimization in the Technology Solutions Group at HP.  Andreessen is currently running a startup called Ning.com and is on the Board of Directors for Facebook.

Related Links:
1. Qik.com
2. CNET
3. CrunchBase