Over lunch with some colleagues last month, the subject of why Microsoft is paying $8.5bn for Skype came up. "Simple", I replied, "for years, governments have been looking for back doors into encrypted communication systems, including Skype. The US government must be secretly subsidizing Microsoft's takeover in return for access to all the Skype traffic".

Consensus round the table was that my theory sounded just a bit too plausible for comfort. If I disappear suddenly, you'll know why...