Summary
Ebay will buy Skype (a market leader in VoIP) for $2.6 billion plus stock. Skype’s technology will be integrated into the auction site, and eBay will continue to run the VoIP provider as a separate communications business.
Original source:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=13534&hed=eBay+Aquires+Skype
Details
Whitman, the combination of Skype, eBay, and PayPal, eBay's online payment company that it acquired for $1.5 billion, will create unmatched synergies and provide an e-commerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world.
For instance, eBay could add a pay-per-call platform to its current transaction-based fees.
Pay-per-call communications opens up new categories of e-commerce, according to Ms.
Whitman, especially for those sectors that depend on a lead-generation model such as personal and business services, travel, new cars, and real estate.
Microsoft's MSN portal acquired Teleo, a VoIP company, for an undisclosed sum late August (see MSN Buys VoIP Company).
And there's been much speculation about search giant Google building its own broadband network.
Google did move into voice last month, when it launched Google Talk, its instant messaging service with voice chat (see Google Launches IM Service).
Its list of investors included Draper Fisher Jurvetson, ePlanet Ventures, Index Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Mangrove Capital Partners.
Danny Rimer, general partner at Index Ventures, said his firm had invested in Skype because it seemed to be a company with potential to become a significant standalone business.
And then, of course, there's always eBay's past track record of growing viral services.
If the two companies had merged in August, their combined unduplicated audience would have been 58 million unique users, said the web tracking company.
Questioned about press reports that China Telecom, China's largest telecommunications carrier, was in the process of blocking
Skype communications on its telephone network, Ms.
Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said that VoIP providers must be prepared to accommodate law enforcement wiretaps, which are covered by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
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Saturday, October 01, 2005
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