eBay eyes Skype

[rpm]

http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=676

 

[Darth Garth]

2 or 3 billion USD is a heck of a lot of money for nothing but the founders of Skype are really a bunch of smart lads (ex-Kazaa) and are selling out with the height of the VOIP hype before it comes crashing down to reality.

If you read broadbandreports you will see how spotty the service is from the likes of Vonage and others with major outages lasting hours but at least with POTS and cellphones you have 24x7 service unless the infrastructure is damaged.

The only time my land line had stop working in 30 years was when I once moered the phone against the wall and it broke in little pieces or when I foolishly ran the cable underneath the carpet.

 

[morebroadband]

The only time my land line had stop working in 30 years was when I once moered the phone against the wall and it broke in little pieces or when I foolishly ran the cable underneath the carpet.

Tibby.Dude - you have been paying a huge premium to have that POTS telephone. I will gladly put up with some degradation on my Skype P2P calls if the remain free - hell I have been putting up with crap calls on cell phones ever since they were introduced.

I doubt very much that VOIP will come crashing down. I believe this to be another disruptive technology. 50 Million Skype users cannot all be wrong! Convergence is here to stay.

 

[Darth Garth]

50 Million Skype users cannot all be wrong!

So you argue that there is safety in numbers ???.

These 50 million Skype users are mostly fickle in their loyality towards it and will drop it as soon as the next freebie big thing comes along like perhaps Google Talk or the Yahoo branded VOIP service.

It is rather telling that they don't release any income statements because their business is built on nothing but overblown hype.

I am not saying VOIP is not here to stay but I don't think Skype is the way to do it.

 

[morebroadband]

50 million users putting up with the quality of a P2P call on Skype says something about fickleness. Yes a lot of those people may move over to something new (Google or Yahoo), but I think Skype, having started their business 2 years ago and possibly selling it for $2 billion is quite amazing. The legacy telcos will have to adapt or die.

 

[morebroadband]

It is rather telling that they don't release any income statements because their business is built on nothing but overblown hype

I am pretty sure that EBAY or News Corp will be looking at their balance sheets very closely. These are very big companies and they won't be buying into Skype if they don't think there will be a good enough return.

 

[Darth Garth]

I am pretty sure that EBAY or News Corp will be looking at their balance sheets very closely. These are very big companies and they won't be buying into Skype if they don't think there will be a good enough return.

So why did Rupert Murdoch not buy Skype a few weeks ago then when it was offered to him ???.

Overinflated price is my guess.

 

[morebroadband]

It was reported that News Corp had put a bid in at $3 billion, but that Tim Draper, the Venture Capitalist behind Skype (the same guy who sold Hotmail to Microsoft for 500million) said the price was too low, based on the actual revenues now, and more importantly the future revenues.

News Corp has been on an aggressive buying spree for anything 'Net" related as they want to catch up to the "Yahoo's, Google's and MSN's", so I am pretty sure that they were very interested.

Please understand that I am not punting Skype, I just think they have been very clever and it looks like they are going to get some big payouts!

 

[adsl3g]

eBay buys Skype

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4237338.stm

 

[Darth Garth]

eBay the future webvan.com .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan

 

[Darth Garth]

Some more comments at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4238258.stm

My fav is

John Delaney, principal consultant at analysts Ovum, added: "eBay has definitely overpaid for Skype."

There was no doubt, said Mr Delaney, that eBay had spent too much if all it was interested in was VoIP technology that Skype uses to help people call each other.

eBay could build or buy its own net communications infrastructure for less, he said.

...

But, said Mr Delaney, even accepting that eBay bought Skype so it could offer phone calls to customers and bulk out its range of services, it has done it very expensively.

 

[morebroadband]

Not to mention that they have bought a potential additional 50 million customers in one deal!
Skype have always been very cautious in releasing their revenue figures, but I am sure they are making money. There is no way Ebay would have paid 2.6 billion just so that their customers could talk to each other!

I also believe that the user experience of Skype will change now. There is going to be advertising, and most likely Ebay Sellers will pay to punt their goods on Skype. If this happens then users will start moving away to the other free services where advertising does not bother them.

It is rumoured that Skype have spent a little over $100 million to date, not taking into account their revenues, which makes this a damm good return on the investment.

The developers, most of which reside in Tallin, Estonia have always prided themselves on being independent. I don't think they are going to enjoy working for a huge company like Ebay, and I won't be surprised if they jump ship.

 

[morebroadband]

Skype Considered Various Options

Skype had become a hot property over the last several months, with the likes
of News Corp. (NWS), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) said to have
been interested in acquiring it.
Skype's director of operations, Michael Jackson, said that Skype did evaluate
various options, but didn't specify which companies were involved in
discussions. He said that eBay had approached Skype initially, and that the deal
had been in the works for several months.
"Various different models were under discussion," Jackson said in a phone
interview. "We evaluated all the different options and found eBay to be the best
fit," he added, citing their mutual commercial interests and corporate cultures.

Under the deal, Skype will remain a stand-alone business unit in the eBay
group. Skype's co-founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, will continue in
their roles as chief executive and head of strategy, respectively, at the
Internet telephony unit. Zennstrom will report to eBay CEO Meg Whitman and will
join eBay's senior executive team.
Skype management has plenty of incentive to maintain the momentum it has
generated in recent years, with up to $1.5 billion riding on it for Skype
shareholders if targets on active users, gross profit and revenue are met.
According to the press release, shareholders representing 60% of Skype shares
opted for lower upfront payment in cash and stock and the possible payments
related to performance at a later date.
Dutta, the eBay CFO, said that the incentives component of the deal is ideal
for the company, noting that eBay will gain significant value if Skype
overachieves and that it immediately involves Skype managers in growing the
business.

By Stephen Wisnefski and Desiree Hanford
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

It seems as if these incentives will keep the team together a little longer!

 

[Darth Garth]

Not to mention that they have bought a potential additional 50 million customers in one deal!

Afaik Skype does not use the industry standard SIP protocol ... so will they remain an island or open up ???.

 

[morebroadband]

Skype have stated they will remain closed, but they have opened up their API. I think this deal might change a lot of things, it will be interesting to see what transpires.