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EBay Sells Skype To Marc Andreessen
Julefrokost writes "Computerworld has a story about eBay selling Skype. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, along with a group of investors, are reported to have paid $2 billion for Skype. According to the New York Times, Google was also a potential buyer. Also, the original founders of Skype are said to have placed a bid, but Marc Andreessen & Co was the highest bidder."
I hope the new owners make it better and re-incorporate the functionality it had before.
I really miss Skypecasts, it was a really useful tool for practicing languages and having informal meetings (moderation, talk turns, etc)...
Just today I spent about an hour looking for a skypecast alternative where I could practice my German with others (maybe first only hearing and talking a bit later).
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
Is Skype really worth half the value of Marvel? Disney got an amazing deal...
Apparently the original creators of Skype aren't really that smart if they don't know how to use proxy bidding. Too bad.
Cool. Now they'll surely want to "monetize" it, which should drive users to Ekiga instead :-)
Is there a Windows port?
Considering the continuing legal troubles, I'm surprised they found a buyer. That's why Google purportedly backed out of negotiations to buy them some time back.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I wonder if there was a "Skype" item on sale in eBay...
Google must have hit a "speed bump". :)
Yet another free service gets snapped up for billions, in the hopes that it will somehow generate more than the expended value in ad revenue. Either that or some other magical source of cash influx that will not be spent by its users who are used to getting it free and will jump ship if subscription models become mandatory.
It seems a lot of people still believe that when the internet is involved, tried and true business rules and plain old common sense do not apply. Is the black magic of the interwebs not dead yet?
Just like when eBay purchased Skype they brought in a slew of new price increases and a per-call connection charge in an attempt to win back how ever many billion they paid for it?
I stopped using skype years ago because the quality was never great, not compared to my Cisco 7960G anyway. For a while I was even considering buying dedicated Skype hardware but now I'm very glad I didn't
Poor google, I guess they didn't notice that there was a buy it now option.
The interesting thing about this deal is that eBay actually bought Skype from the founders for 3.1 billion US dollars. They are now selling for 2 billion which makes you think about the huge loss and the extremely bad deal they made in buying in the first place. When eBay bought Skype it was seen by many as the worst IT business deal, ever!
As Skype's money seem to be made only on pc-to-phone calls, I hope they'll open their protocol to other clients and just act as a sort of SIP-to-phone platform. If users can connect from other clients, that could be a win.
"There are all kinds of things that you would do differently if you are building a browser from scratch." - Marc Andreessen
Could his big idea be a browser with Skype and Google Wave components built in?
my other post is +5 insightful
I did the same thing, purchasing a Linksys SPA-2200 and connecting it to a Canadian SIP provider (Acanac). That's after purchasing a crappy Skype USB phone. The difference is astounding and it's a dirt cheap, full replacement for a landline. I even use ekiga on a netbook when I wan't a "portable" phone line. And if Acanac ever raised their price, I can easily switch to a different provider and use the same box.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
Considering how small Andreessen Horowitz fund is compared to the $2 billion price tag, it's incredibly misleading to say Skype is sold to Marc Andreessen. He gets a tiny slice of it, the big private equity firms is where Skype was sold to. And they'll be looking to sell it further.
I didn't RTFA, but this must surely be a record bid for an auction on Ebay.
872835240
...is if Skype was put up on an eBay auction :)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The "final value fees" must have been enormous. I hope Andreessen didn't pay using Paypal.
For those who had all but given up on Skype in Linux, they just released a new Linux client beta version in the last few days or so. Finally there are changes afoot...
if they had actually sold it on E-Bay.
I don't trust a company that won't use their own product.
I just check the Vonage web site. You can't call anywhere in the world for free. Maybe you mean other Vonage customers.
But, why would you pay $20 to $70 per month for a limited number of minutes rather than using a SIP phone (hard or soft) and doing the same for free; maybe using some SIP gateway service for call-in and call-out?
Here's the list:
Andorra Argentina Australia Austria Bahamas* Bahrain Belgium Brazil Brunei* Bulgaria Canada* Chile China* Colombia Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Guadeloupe Guam* Hong Kong* Hungary Iceland India* Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Japan Jordan Kenya Latvia Luxembourg Macedonia, Republic of Macau* Malaysia* Malta Mexico Monaco Netherlands New Zealand Norway Peru Poland Portugal Puerto Rico* Romania Russia Saipan* San Marino* Singapore* Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand* Turkey United Kingdom United States* U.S. Virgin Islands* Venezuela Zambia
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
The fact that the "underlying P2P" technology was not property of Skype made me wonder about the possibility of the technology owners enabling eavesdropping mechanisms behind closed doors..
Sometimes it takes a very long time for the penny to drop. Ah, I'm getting old.
Could it possibly be that a *much* larger organisation than the Hollywood studios is actually behind the drive to quash P2P technology universally?
Follow the money, they say. Now... it's not a question of who would benefit most, but who would lose the most if P2P was allowed to roam free?
Next question - Who is shaping down P2P network traffic without telling us? The ISP's? And they're owned by...
The Telcos. Yep, all of them. Chargeable point to point telecommunications are under threat, copper and cell both - people are still charged by the call, not by the TCP/IP connection. It's bread and butter.
Telcos have the most to fear by the proliferation of Skype, Ventrilo, TeamSpeak et.al...
I know correlation isn't causation, but it sure as hell draws your eye. Big question here: are the Telcos, behind the odd blind financing dodges, actually bankrolling the fight against P2P technologies?
Think ... SCO epic to kill Linux; beyond the obvious threat to Microsoft, the comms are a bit too "open" to make the telcos really comfortable. The RIAA - yes, we know the record companies are bringing suit, and we know what they're like, but isn't P2P technology an enabler of free phone calls?
I know this is tinfoil hat stuff, but I also consider that people who make it to the strategy-deciding levels at communications firms do know a bit about communications strategies. P2P is aimed squarely at their wallets. If I were a bastard in their position it's what I'd do. And in the aggregate, I think they outweigh Microsoft and all the record companies too, no?
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Preach, brother. A Linksys ATA plus a good-quality DECT cordless phone kicks Skype's ass eight ways to Sunday. Cheaper calls, better phone, full programmability, vendor independence, and ten thousand times better audio quality.
"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
Did ebay list Skype in an auction? I mean, why wasn't I allowed to bid? Do these deals occur in smoky back rooms across a table filled with brandy glasses and cigar ashes? How does a company like ebay let someone like Andreessen know they have something up for sale? Does Satan have a billion dollar deal brokerage in hell that only the most elite rich get invited to? Somebody, *who knows*, please educate me on this! I took some business courses in school, but I must have been asleep the day deals like this were covered.
Her birthday was 2 weeks ago, fathead.
many others will too.
Right now, a privacy guarantee is a USP.