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Cisco Planning To Acquire Skype

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the can-you-see-me-now dept.

rexjoec writes "Cisco is making a bid for Skype. The deal, if successful, would derail a planned initial public offering from Skype and redraw the battle lines in the lucrative market of video communications." The rumored price is $5B.

13 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Not sure how I feel by Windows+Breaker+G4 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am not sure how I feel about this, we could see sweet void phones from cisco, on the other hand they could really killy Skype. Oh well I guess we have google voice now right?

    --
    brickspeed.net for your old Volvo performance addiction
    1. Re:Not sure how I feel by erroneus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I know how I feel about it. It is beyond time for some enterprising individuals to team up to create an open video chat specification complete with the ability to conference in multiple people at once like this oovoo thing. (No Linux client! Bastards!) People could then put up their own servers and install clients on all OSes, not just the ones companies want to support and then Skype is less relevant.

      All I see at the moment is that in spite of the existence of F/OSS projects that do exactly what I suggest, none of them are in wide enough use to be considered a peer with Skype and definitely Cisco. That, more or less, needs to change. Once Cisco gets Skype, there will be radical change and people will want to move on to something else.

  2. Did Google see this coming... by onionman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Certainly seems like Google saw this coming from a long way off given that they have been working hard to integrate Skype-like features into gmail.

    It makes me wonder how many Cisco/Skype executives were using gmail accounts...

    1. Re:Did Google see this coming... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Given that I'm not that keen on participating in Google's data-mining projects, I am underwhelmed by Google Voice offerings. Skype (despite its various failings) offers a comprehensive voice (and video if you want it) or chat connection that is independent of your browser, and thus is to an extent more or less insulated from your other online habits. Skype can be swallowed up by pretty much anyone other than Google (so long as those services remain intact) and I'll be content.

  3. Re:Cisco Planning to Squash Another Competitor by Kepesk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Buying up companies at a frantic pace seems to be the hot trend among powerful corporations.

    Soon there will only be two corporations: Microsoft-Cisco-Skype-NBC-Pepsi-McDonnalds-Halliburton-Friskies Corp and Apple-AOL-Time-Warner-CBS-CocaCola-BurgerKing-BP-FancyFeast Corp.

    Then you'll start getting weird messages on your computer... "You better not buy Fancy Feast." "We saw you drink that Pepsi."

    --
    Help me fix my brother's injured butt!
  4. Re:I welcome this. by oogoliegoogolie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If it is urgent there is no Voice support,
    If it's urgent then use your telephone! Or Windows Messenger. Or how about email?

    I rather enjoy Skype the way it is right now. Cisco is going to destroy Skype intentionally or accidentally by doing one of two things:
    1) Add Skype's technology into their products, stick a "Powered by Skype" sticker on the box, and kill off any consumer-level access Skype as we enjoy it now. Looking back at Cisco's purchases in the last decade and you'll see this is very likely.
    2) As an attempt to make Skype profitable, they'll quadruple the prices and charge for the ones that are currently free. Coming soon:unused Skype credits that expire in 30 days.

  5. Re:Probably a good fit by whisper_jeff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone wanna revisit why eBay bought 'em in the first place?

    eBay bought Skype for $2.6 billion and is now rumored to be on the verge of selling it for $5 billion.

    I would imagine the reason eBay bought Skype is something along the lines of "to make $2.4 billion dollars profit" though I could be mistaken.

  6. Re:Cisco Planning to Squash Another Competitor by mlts · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The reason companies do the buying is that R&D is so heavily penalized in the US, due to tax breaks, liability, and other things. If a small company puts out a product, it is better to wait to see if they face lawsuits, then buy them if nothing happens as opposed to creating a product for a new market.

    Plus, American companies are shackled to the fact that they have to make a profit quarter per quarter, or shareholders can sue the company in the ground. Buying a company is a lot easier to explain to the accountants and board members as opposed to charging off some chunk of change for a R&D facility for new products that won't have an ROI for 5-10 years.

  7. Re:Cisco Planning to Squash Another Competitor by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem is cash sitting around doing nothing. NPR was running a story yesterday talking about how the top 120 companies have over $1 trillion of cash sitting around, and investors are demanding they either distribute it to them via dividends or invest it via mergers and acquisitions. So, yeah, if it's either earning 0.5 percent in a money market account or buying up a ton of relatively cheap companies with the potential for a much larger return, you go on a spending spree and buy up whatever you think is going to have a decent ROI.

  8. Re:Cisco Planning to Squash Another Competitor by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hahaha you should read Jennifer Government by Max Barry...

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  9. Re:iPhone by Cisco? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    At some point, folks at skype decided that they didn't want to be a source for free video calls over 3g and blocked fring.

    I think this had more to do with the fact that Fring was a 3rd party, and so they felt threatened by third party clients connecting to their network.

    I've only used it once and only for voice, but I'm pretty sure my Nokia N900 can make Skype calls over 3G. In box, without any third party add-ons. It can also do video calls over Google Chat.

  10. Re:Cisco Planning to Squash Another Competitor by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Google Voice (aka Grand Central),
    Google Chat, now with phone dialing (PC to PC, PC to Phone VOIP)
    Gizmo5 (Acquired last year)Voip Telephony Company
    Adroid Phone

    Google has ALL the pieces needed to make a serious run at SKYPE, which is why SKYPE is running to Wall Street now looking for IPO or White Knight, IMHO. SKYPE ought to be scared, because they don't have the bulk and push Google does.

    And Google doesn't have to sit on Gizmo5 much longer, if they are working towards integration of the four. The pieces are almost there for the first and complete VOIP end to end network, with Cell as backup.

    THAT is just how I see it.

    --
    Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
  11. Re:Cisco Planning to Squash Another Competitor by kamochan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The same applies also in Europe, even if for slightly different reasons (labor costs and liabilities). R&D is expensive for big corps, and growth is expensive for small corps.

    This leads to most start-ups having a business strategy of doing R&D with a skeleton crew, then getting bought by big corp X. Where X is often known from the moment the start-up is launched. Any business done before the exit stage is purely to prove the validity of the developed solution. A tech start-up without an exit strategy in the 21st century = doomed to fail.

    This of course will lead to the MegaCorp world the GP envisioned. It's unavoidable.