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

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.

To steal a joke from Fark

[Anonymous Coward]

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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