Ebay: Why did we buy Skype again?

[Stanley]

Ebay considers sale of Skype subsidiary

Ebay will consider selling off its Skype internet phone subsidiary at the end of this year if it fails to find ways to use the fast-growing service to support its core e-commerce business, according to the company's chief executive.

The comments from John Donahoe, who took over at the end of last month, are the most direct indication yet that Ebay is thinking of scrapping the ill-starred acquisition. It paid $3.1bn, but wrote down the value of the business by $1.4bn last year after concluding it would not match earlier hopes.

Ebay originally believed that Skype would oil the wheels of its online markets by making communications easier between buyers and sellers, while also supporting new business models such as "click to call". Nearly three years after the acquisition, however, Ebay has yet to prove Skype can help its other businesses.

You gotta love the logic behind these buyouts.. oh wait, what logic?

 

[mubin]

One of the best things about buying and selling online is that you no longer have to listen to a sales pitch, or put up with a customers stupid annoying voice and retarded questions.

They have a question they email. That was the simplicity and the beauty of eBay. If i'm selling 6000 products on ebay what the hell makes you think I want to talk to you about anything?

Dumb idea.

 

[trigatch4]

Google's Android COULD make Skype a HUGE deal and relevant player in worldwide wireless. 700 megahertz auction was won by Verizon but Google forced bidding above the "limit" meaning Verizon has to keep the spectrum "open".

Skype has thus far LOST lawsuits that would equate wireless signals with land lines in that, once a land line is laid out, other companies have the right to "use it".

SUMMARY: In a few years you could be buying an Android Phone and using Skype to place/receive all your calls using the "White Space" in the open 700 megahertz spectrum. It would of course... all be subsidized by locational advertising.

If you remember... ebay is a part of Google's "Open Handset Alliance" initiative along with about 30 other HUGE companies (LG, Motorola, Samsung to name a few)

Skype could have a rosy future and they would be dumb as hell to sell it within the next year. The future of Android will spell out the future of Skype.

 

[nmwando]

I think they are giving up too soon.