Ebay Rumored to be Buying Skype

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."

Comments

sKYPE

[Widowwolf]

So will i be able to call and complain about the massive ebay fees with my skype account?

Re:sKYPE

[Widowwolf]

but they will charge you exhorbitant fees for it~ then when you try to pay those fees , paypall will freeze your account and you wont be able to call either ebay or paypal to complain becuase they will have shut your phone off!

Horrible spelling

[bigtallmofo]

The spelling of Slashdot editors sure has gotten bad lately.

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

[Neil Blender]

I thought they misspelled Google.

Re:Horrible spelling

[robertjw]

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.

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?

To steal a joke from Fark

[Anonymous Coward]

Talks fail when at the last second some jerk bids $3,000,000,000.50

Re:To steal a joke from Fark

[Golias]

Nice one.

Just for the record, is there any company in America which is not rumored to be on the verge of buying Skype?

You know it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ebay is going to be outbid at the last possible moment. OUCH!

Wall Street Journal

[geomon]

While they have a strong track record for supporting business and tracking developments in the business world, I take nearly everything they offer as rumor or opinion with a grain of salt. Remember that it was the WSJ that was an early flogger of Cold Fusion. They were speculating about the enormous potential of a science "discovery" that hadn't even been vetted by the larger scientific community. I wonder why they don't have a cold fusion section in their paper an more.

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.

What does EBay want with VOIP

[Suburbanpride]

from the article:
"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

[SlayerofGods]

They're buying it because they think it will make them money.
Simple as that.
Just because they started out providing one type of service doesn't mean they can't offer something new.

Re:What does EBay want with VOIP

[MoralHazard]

You ask a good question--usually, companies don't bother buying other companies unless they see the potential to leverage some synergy between the parent and child.

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.

Here come the ads.

[L. VeGas]

If this happens, I'll put money on it that the free pc to pc calls will become adware.

Voice phishing

[confusion]

Does this mean that I'll be getting people calling me for my ebay account info on my skype line now?

Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/

paypal

[papasui]

They should buy skype and give it to Paypal so that you can actually get a hold of those fuckers.

Re:paypal

[Jesus IS the Devil]

The parent has been modded funny, but believe me... ther ain't nothing funny about a company that takes your money gladly, and then basically tells you to Fuck Off when problems arise.

Wait a minute....

[lucabrasi999]

Rumor has it that trusted sources from The Wall Street Journal say Ebay is interested in buying Skype.

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rumor has it that trusted sources from The Wall Street Journal say

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 for those without a WSJ account.

Geez, Taco. Grow up and act like a real editor.

In other news...

[brakk]

Rumor has it that trusted sources from My Pants say Wang Enterprises is interested in buying Skype. Later after the announcement, My Pants fell 4.3 percent.

Come on. It's like everyone is rumored to buy Skype these days.

Google + Skype =

[3770]

Google + Skype = soiled telco executive underwear

Ebay + Skype = telco executive goes "meh"

Re:Google + Skype =

[sapgau]

google advertising during my phone conversations is terrifying.

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! :-p

Rumors only help Google and Apple - not eBay

[Se7enLC]

"Rumor has it ... Ebay Inc. shares fell 4.3 percent."

When will they ever learn....only Apple and Google stocks rise when rumors get out!

eBay's market rating

[Seehund]

"Ebay Inc. shares fell 4.3 percent."

You mean they're down to only "AAAAA++++++!!!111" now?

Skype wont sell

[dep01]

Skype already turned down a billion dollar deal from another company. They're holding on to it.. I'm sure they wont sell to eBay.

Will help save their reputation

[m50d]

Some people don't trust Skype because of its association with Kazaa founders. Thankfully I'm sure their minds will be laid to rest with it being run by ebay, after all everyone knows their subsidiaries are always very reputable companies, we all know we can trust paypal with all our money.

Oh, wait.

In the News Today...

[JabberWokky]

Google announced that a janitor kicked around the idea of buying Taco Bell. Google stock rose $47 and Yum! Brands, owner of Taco Bell, had their stock go up $132.

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

Re:Tit for tat

[Gruneun]

It's criticizing, not criticising.

Please, no American buyers!

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the nice things about Skype is the strong encryption. The American government is considering legislation to require backdoors in internet telephony. I've lost the link but I saw an interview with the CEO of Skype, asking how they would respond...the CEO simply said that as a company in Luxembourg, he was perfectly free to ignore American legislation, and intended to do so. EBay wouldn't have the same freedom.

Re:Why?

[nametaken]

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.

I'm worried

[kartan]

Anyone else worried that Skype, if owned by Ebay, would be more likely to bend to the FCC's demands to allow federal wiretapping?

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).