A VC who worked on Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype says it provided a valuable lesson about why the best startups are 'bought not sold'

That experience, alongside helping to realize the fund's exit from Spotify during its IPO last year, helped shape his vision for what makes the best companies.Click here for more BI Prime storiesMicrosoft's acquisition of Skype was one of its biggest acquisitions of the past decade, and for Paul Murphy, who worked on the deal, it was a sign of the best practices for a business.

This was a lightbulb moment for Murphy who spent eight years at Microsoft and is now a general partner at Stockholm-headquartered VC fund Northzone. Murphy served as chief of staff to Kurt DelBene, president of Microsoft Office, at the time of the Skype deal. He created presentation slides, speeches, and analyses to help get the deal signed off by the board and sat in on high-level meetings as part of the acquisition.Skype had an established customer base, good user experience, great software and a strong software team which made it an essential purchase for Microsoft — even at something of a premium.

That disruption and ambitious thinking is key for Murphy, who was formerly CEO and cofounder of games company Dots."I came to invest in Europe to work with crazy ambitious founders who want to build companies that are going to lead globally," Murphy said.

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