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Ebay Rumored to be Buying Skype
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Thu Sep 08, 2005 01:53 PM
from the now-thats-a-really-strange-marriage dept.
from the now-thats-a-really-strange-marriage dept.
JDStone writes "Rumor has it that trusted sources from The Wall Street Journal say Ebay is interested in buying Skype. Later after the announcment, Ebay Inc. shares fell 4.3 percent."
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sKYPE (Score:4, Funny)
Re:sKYPE (Score:2, Funny)
Re:sKYPE (Score:3, Funny)
Horrible spelling (Score:5, Funny)
Back to the topic, why would EBay want to buy a peanut butter manufacturer? And if they did want to, I would think Jif would be a more appropriate takeover target.
(...wondering how many mods have their humor hat on)
Re:Horrible spelling (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Horrible spelling (Score:3, Interesting)
Market analysts say [marketwatch.com] (and market analysts are never wrong) that skype "could help eBay quickly improve customer service"
Anyone who's used Paypal know how important "customer service" is to ebay
In all seriousness - as WSJ intimates, automated buyer to seller / buyer to previous buyer / etc VOIP calls, could improve ebay's model of doing business.
Re:Horrible spelling (Score:4, Insightful)
Explain to me exactly how VOIP calls are going to help "auction success rate" and consequentially ebay's business model? As a regular ebay purchaser and occasional ebay seller I will NOT download and install skype so that the freaky people that buy and sell stuff on ebay can talk to me via voice. I much prefer the relative anonymity of email, where I can delete abusive messages, to actual voice conversations.
With ebay's HUGE userbase, there are a large number of people out there that can't even read. If you have ever attempted to sell anything on ebay, I'm sure you've been bombarded with questions that were clearly answered in your description. Adding voice capability is just going to make dealing with these bidder more annoying. With many ebay sellers selling multiple items at a simultaneously, who is going to have time to discuss problems over VOIP?
ebay has the online auction business well dominated, why would they want to branch into something completely unrelated?
Parent
Re:Horrible spelling (Score:3, Insightful)
2) People who do like eBAYskype(tm) can use it.
Problem is, ebay is going to potentially spend BILLIONS of dollars to acquire skype. They must have a better plan than 'use it if you like it'. Adoption rate would have to be rather signficant for this deal to be worthwhile for ebay - and I can't see that happening.
I see skype as being more useful - and I certainly see the use in being able to talk to someone I am buying from.
From a buyer's perspecti
To steal a joke from Fark (Score:5, Funny)
Re:To steal a joke from Fark (Score:4, Funny)
Just for the record, is there any company in America which is not rumored to be on the verge of buying Skype?
Parent
Skype + eBay = ??? talking auction? (Score:2, Interesting)
sure, sometimes I would like to look at the sellers face when he says, I didn't test the notebook, but I think it is running fine, but I won't guarantee...
W00t
You know it! (Score:3, Funny)
Wall Street Journal (Score:5, Insightful)
This marriage between Ebay and Skype does have some marginal plausibility due to the need for Ebay to spend some of its reserves capturing markets outside of the online auction business. Skype needs cash to fend off Microsoft's entry into VOIP. The rumor has some potential traction, but the market has given its opinion to the deal. A drop of nearly 5% in your stock price is something a CEO and board of directors can't easily ignore.
Re:Wall Street Journal (Score:2)
qouting from Om Mallik's blog [gigaom.com]-
"I am not sure what to make of the conversations, because frankly at $2-to-$3 billion, it doesn't make sense for eBay to get into a whole new business. I can understand giving the consumers ability to click-and-call the seller/buyer.
But it can be done fairly cheaply and easily. When connecting to PSTN, eBay will then have to deal with all that comes with it, including a nosy and notoriously pesky FCC. Are they ready for it? Why not partner with someone - and there are enou
Re:Wall Street Journal (Score:3, Interesting)
Didn't PayPal just announce "micro" payments? We might be seeing Skype turn into a real VoIP system here. Not only that, but everyone's been looking at Skype as a vehicle for buyers interacting with sellers -- why not have *both* interact with eBay itself using Skype/POTS? Now, instead of having to have a broadband connection at the ready, you can easily bid/list/track by phone on eBay, just like the more traditional auctions. If the rumours are true, this is the directi
What does EBay want with VOIP (Score:4, Interesting)
"Whenever a company may do something that's completely different than its historical focus, there is risk,'"
My qyestion is, what would ebay want with VIOP? Paypal and Half.com made sense for ebay to pick up, but I'm just not seeing this at all...
Re:What does EBay want with VOIP (Score:5, Insightful)
Simple as that.
Just because they started out providing one type of service doesn't mean they can't offer something new.
Parent
Re:What does EBay want with VOIP (Score:3, Insightful)
Simple as that.
Just because they started out providing one type of service doesn't mean they can't offer something new.
Investors want to see the value add. If there's no benefit to the merged company, then they won't be interested in the deal. You have to keep the investors in mind when talking about a public company.
And when a company is deciding who will buy them, they tend to look for the same. True, they look at the offer price, but
Re:What does EBay want with VOIP (Score:5, Insightful)
It may be something hard to see from the outside, but I had a few ideas:
1) Ebay has a ton of core compentency in connecting and managing a VERY large number of users, especially in near-realtime transactions. Their auction business is dependent on their technical abilities to have an easy-to-use front end for a huge user population, as well as a reliable back-end that can manage how those users want to interact with each other.
2) Ebay has a large userbase. Skype's ultimate success depends on reaching a large enough mass of users to amortize its fixed costs, and so that network effects will make its service more attractive to new users. There's a cross-selling opportunity, here, along the lines of Google offering IM on top of its email services.
3) Fraud prevention. Ebay doesn't do a perfect job of preventing fraud (phony accounts, stolen accounts, etc), but it had a lot of experience dealing with it. I would imagine that a telecom service like Skype has similar issues with people abusing accounts, or that they foresee such abuse as the service grows more popular. All of the skills and expertise needed to deal with fraud in a massive userbase (like behavior pattern analysis, customer interaction, etc.) may be cross-applicable to both industries.
But these are just guesses. I imagine that there are possibilities that Ebay and Skype see, but that are hidden from outsiders. Might as well wait and watch what happens.
Parent
Re:What does EBay want with VOIP (Score:2)
Here come the ads. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Its not uncommon for a company with cash in the bank to buy up unrelated companies to diversify its holdings. Its much like an individual buying a mutual fund, you don't put all your eggs in one basket. Companies like Microsoft do this all the time. They've bought all kinds of seemingly unrelated companies.
Additionally, it could provide a near-turnkey solution for better buyer/seller communication, which could be cool.
From a number of persepectives, it could happen. It just doesn't look like the market approves right now.
Parent
Voice phishing (Score:5, Funny)
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/ [cyvin.org]
paypal (Score:5, Funny)
Re:paypal (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Wait a minute.... (Score:5, Funny)
Rumor has it that trusted sources from Joe's coffee shop say that Sam might possibly be interested in thinking about considering reviewing the possibility of actually looking into purchasing a piece of pie.
worst. summary. ever. (Score:4, Informative)
Um, why the hell the contorted syntax? Why not just say:
The Wall Street Journal is reporting EBay is in talks to acquire Internet-telephony company Skype for $2 billion to $3 billion, in a deal that would represent a dramatic shift in strategy for the online auction giant. Bloomberg has the details [bloomberg.com] for those without a WSJ account.
Geez, Taco. Grow up and act like a real editor.
Re:worst. summary. ever. (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe the submitter has a good grasp of subtle irony?
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Come on. It's like everyone is rumored to buy Skype these days.
Google + Skype = (Score:5, Funny)
Google + Skype = soiled telco executive underwear
Ebay + Skype = telco executive goes "meh"
Re:Google + Skype = (Score:4, Interesting)
Reminds me of when eating at a local "mercado" in Mexico. While you eat several people will try to sell you something(sungalses, garlic, cheap jewelery, T-Shirt from your favorite soccer team, etc...).
The food is great but when your're finished you just want to get away from all that spam!
Parent
Rumors only help Google and Apple - not eBay (Score:5, Funny)
When will they ever learn....only Apple and Google stocks rise when rumors get out!
No, that's not right (Score:3, Informative)
Company A thinks acquiring Company B might be a good idea.
They look at the market value of Company B, and how much revenue Company B is expected to generate over x number of years, as well as how much synergistic value Companies A and B would have if they merged.
Company B looks to be a tremendous value, so Company A would do well to buy them out, right?
The problem is that Company B's shareholders are well aware of their value, and they are not going to be bought out on the cheap, p
So now you can... (Score:2)
eBay's market rating (Score:5, Funny)
You mean they're down to only "AAAAA++++++!!!111" now?
Audio bidding (Score:2)
Skype wont sell (Score:3, Interesting)
They must be infected with the same bug (Score:2)
Does that mean... (Score:3, Insightful)
Will help save their reputation (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, wait.
Laughable (Score:3, Insightful)
No wonder their stocks are taking a hit. They don't even know how to run their own company right, how can anyone expect them to do the same with a totally different company?
In the News Today... (Score:5, Funny)
Meanwhile eBay announced that they had struck a deal to buy Microsoft, WalMart and a US Mint. "We can now literally print our own money, plus we will have a near monopoly in both software and tangible retail goods", said eBay President Meg Whitman. Leery of the announcement, eBay's stock price dropped to only four cents per share. "I ain't gonna trust no dot com blip blip stock", said noted day trader Erwin Lapsey. "I lost my shirt on them, and they are all evil".
Microsoft President Steve Ballmer had only three words to say about the deal: "Developers! Developers! Developers!". The sweat running down his broad manly chest then shorted out the microphones, abruptly ending the press conferences. Meanwhile, deep inside Mum-Ra's lair, the lich formerly known as Sam Walton and current President-in-Secret wheezed his single word comment about the proposed merger: "...braaains...".
--
Evan
Please, no American buyers! (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm worried (Score:3, Interesting)
Typically big American corporations like Ebay play ball with the government, and one of Skype's most attractive features (IMO) is that they don't allow wiretapping (the data is encrypted end-to-end).
This Rumor Actually Makes Sense!! (Score:3, Interesting)
I am posting fairly late in this discussion but, as no-one else has made the following connection, I will put it forward.
The key here is not Ebay but PayPal and their recent repositioning.
Before I go any further, I should mention that I don't believe anyone is going to be paying 10 figures for Skype, that's just ridiculous. From what I've heard, their P2P network is completely unsustainable, with far too few supernodes. If anyone does buy Skype, they will probably do so for the brand and customer base but replace the existing network with a more centralised one.
Skype's brand isn't really such a great catch - it would be quickly superseded if someone offered even a marginally better service - all ownership of the Skype brand would provide is a small head start. Is that worth billions? I don't know but I suspect not.
As for Skype's existing customer base, they say they have 52 million users, which really means 52 million downloads. Of those, only 2 million have ever actually parted with cash to use the Skype-Out feature that allows you to make calls to regular phones.
Now, bear in mind that I am one of those two million - I forget what I paid, probably a $5 minimum charge, just to play with the service for a while, probably used up a dollar or so calling embassies in China for a laugh. In the space of one week I downloaded Skype twice, installing it on 2 different machines to see if I could call myself. I made a grand total of ONE free call to another Skype user, a guy in Canada who posted on the Skype forum, asking for someone to call him so that he could see if Skype worked. I then annoyed a lot of people in China and, having had my fun, abandoned whatever money I had left in my account and uninstalled Skype from both machines.
If I am at all typical of first wave adopters, their active userbase is far, far smaller but they won't publicly release that figure. Ebay, however, will be well aware of it and will negotiate accordingly.
As for paying customers, well, I'm not the only person who's willing to blow a few dollars to play with a shiny new toy but quickly bored by it. How many recurring customers do they have? And how much do you think they spend on average? And how big is Skype's margin on that?
Let's say they have 1 million active paying customers (nonsense, but what the Hell), each of those would have to be valued $100 to make Skype worth a billion. That is about twice the going value of a mobile phone customer. Ridiculous.
So, having established that Skype is worth far less than over-excited journalists would have us believe, let's presume that Skype is actually willing to sell for far, far less. Who, then, would be interested in buying?
Any of the big names could probably harness the initial hype of the sale to their benefit. Yahoo could certainly use the edge against Google and they've swallowed some pretty interesting companies lately in their quest to reinvent themselves. Google knows that and would probably like to take Skype out of Yahoo's reach, but, generally, they prefer to develop their own tech in-house.
Vodaphone could do something really smart with Skype, link their networks in a way that would really blow the other mobile providers out of the water but, from what I know of corporate decision-making, that might be a little too out-of-the-box for a non-Internet company.
Which brings us back to PayPal. Last week, they announced something fairly momentous that was missed by pretty much everyone. After years of holding back the whole idea of micro-payments, they finally decided to granularize their fee scale to make smaller transactions viable. Before, you had to pay 30c + 3% of every transaction, leaving you with 67c from a dollar sale. Now, they are willing to take 5c + 5% instead, leaving you with 90c. This is huge news because it makes viable
Tit for tat (Score:2)
Re:Tit for tat (Score:2, Funny)
It's 'breast', not 'tit'.
Re:Tit for tat (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Bad guys always win? (Score:3, Interesting)
1st Sherman Networks had nothing to do with Gator.
2nd the music industry is actually doing just fine.
3rd Napster was shut down, they did not "stop".
4th Gator is, as well as being annoying to all hell, not responsible for anyy indentity theft, or criminal action at all.
As for the rest, well since nothing prior to your skype comment had even the hint of truth I feel I can say the rest is also bullshit.