Skype discusses its biggest potential rivals

• Internet phone-calling phenomenon Skype Technologies SA, which was bought by on-line auction company eBay Inc. for almost $4-billion (U.S.) last week, said it sees computer giant Microsoft Corp. as one of its biggest potential rivals.
• "I think the biggest threat to us is companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and Time Warner's AOL, because their customer base is so big," Skype's chief executive officer and co-founder Niklas Zennstroem told a conference yesterday.
• Microsoft bought Teleo in August and Yahoo bought Dialpad earlier in the year in efforts to catch up with Skype's lead in the booming voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) market.
• Luxembourg-based Skype offers free computer-to-computer calls between Skype users.
• It charges for calls made from or to numbers outside the network.
• EBay is paying $2.5-billion plus another possible $1.4-billion if certain targets are met for Skype, which will allow it to add free Web telephone calls to its on-line auctions, smoothing the way for more deals to go through.
• Mr. Zennstroem said he had thought long and hard about the sale to eBay and had talked to other potential buyers as well as considering an initial public offering before plumping for eBay, which promised Skype the most autonomy.
• "EBay had a good record, especially with PayPal," said Mr. Zennstroem, referring to the on-line payment company eBay bought in 2002.
• "They don't want to disintegrate the company.
• They'll nourish it and allow it to grow."
• Mr. Zennstroem confirmed that he had talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. before deciding to go with eBay.
• "We had meetings with a lot of companies.
• Mr. Zennstroem said he saw growth possibilities in facilitating such services as live on-line translation.
• "I'm convinced that over time pretty much all voice communication will be over the Internet.
• In a few years' time the idea of paying for phone calls will seem very strange."