The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal is reporting this headline: Skype sold in deal valuing it at $2.75B
It caught my eye because I just resubscribed to their service… it does make it easier to communicate.
Ebay’s President and CEO had this to say:
Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses. As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum.
I hope they can make this deal profitable as is and that current subscribers like myself and many readers won’t get “hosed” in the process of paying for this transaction!
tom on September 4th, 2009 at 7:11 am
skype prices went up and certain subscriptions were dropped when it was sold. my subscription was dropped and I now no longer have interest in skype — it’s not as advantageous now.
Pankaj on September 7th, 2009 at 11:49 am
I don’t think the acquisition means anything negative for end consumers. If anything, the new owners will have more incentive to develop Skype, as opposed to eBay, which did not find it to be a fit with its core business.
Our personal story with Skype is great. We use it extensively for international and domestic sales, as well as to communicate with globally scattered teams in South America and Asia, and also encourage customers to use Skype in tandem with our collaboration suite. In fact, we entered the recent “Skype for Business” competition and won it.
Joel McLaughlin on September 9th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Skype didn’t seem to be a company that would Benefit Google. it’s a great company and service, however it probably won’t be a monster monetizing system and I am sure it takes up a lot of resources.