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eBay Sells 65% Of Skype
Skype hails 'new chapter' with new owners
by Karl Bode Tuesday 01-Sep-2009 tags: competition · business · alternatives · VoIP
According to a press release, eBay today announced that they'll be selling about 65% of Skype to a group of private investors. According to eBay, the deal values the company at around $2.75 billion. eBay paid $2.1 billion (closer to $3 billion if you include bonus incentives for Skype’s shareholders) when they acquired the company in 2005 with plans to tightly integrate Skype functionality into eBay auction systems. In a blog post, Skype boss Josh Silverman says the deal "begins a new chapter" for the voice outfit with "a new group of owners who believe passionately in our mission." According to Skype and eBay, the voice operators generates about $600 million a year in revenues.

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Subaru
1-3-2-4
Premium
join:2001-05-31
Greenwich, CT

I don't understand

when I heard they first brought them I thought it was something that seemed pretty not well thought of.

besides how many people really did use skype on ebay?

NOVA_Guy
ObamaCare Kills Americans
Premium
join:2002-03-05

Re: I don't understand

I didn't know that one could use Skype on eBay. I guess that means I count as one of the folks who didn't.
Lyshen
Premium
join:2002-05-28
Beverly Hills, CA

Ebay w/ skype built in?

Is Skype even somehow integrated into Ebay?

Last I checked, didn't see anything that connects the two. The only thing I've seen that remotely uses phone on Ebay is pin verification... thats about it.
JesusInside

join:2009-08-24
Albany, NY

Re: Ebay w/ skype built in?

said by Lyshen:

Is Skype even somehow integrated into Ebay?

Last I checked, didn't see anything that connects the two. The only thing I've seen that remotely uses phone on Ebay is pin verification... thats about it.
Yes it is, you can place a skype call button in you auction as one of the listing options. I never got it to work though, it showed me as offline all the time.
elray

join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA
Reviews:
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Wise move

Skype still has potential to be a huge entity, but they aren't going to show huge profits on 100 million subs of $3/month.

Its been five years now, and they still don't support number portability, and they still don't have an ATA, and no means to block unwanted calls and spam.

Unless they can and want to resolve these issues, they'll never conquer the multiline business market.

nixen
Rockin' the Boxen
Premium
join:2002-10-04
Alexandria, VA

Re: Wise move

said by elray:

Skype still has potential to be a huge entity, but they aren't going to show huge profits on 100 million subs of $3/month.
I would have thought they had huge potential, too, a few months ago. I mean, I was working in Europe for a couple months and Skype was great. Being married, I needed some way to keep connected with my wife. Only problem was, Skype's support for Mac was ass - less features than the Windows version and a HORRIBLE resource hog.

Since coming back to the states, I'm really kind turned on to the Google suite (gTalk+video's nice and the Google Voice *really* rocks). Haven't really used Skype since starting to use Google.

I still have $10+ of Skype credit I need to "call down".

said by elray:

Its been five years now, and they still don't support number portability, and they still don't have an ATA, and no means to block unwanted calls and spam.

Unless they can and want to resolve these issues, they'll never conquer the multiline business market.
Given Google's entry, I think they lost their window of opportunity.
--
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russell
ackman

join:2000-10-04
Acworth, GA

Poor Meg

Good old Meg Whitman... bought Skype for 2.6 billion in 2005. Hmmm, so a flea market buys a phone company... Brilliant strategy? Or an outright blunder? Ebay finally unloaded the unrelated industry product for just 1.9 billion, for a loss of 700 million. Nice investment, Meg. And what became of Meg? She left ebay and went to work on the wildly successful McCain-Palin campaign. John McCain floated Meg's name as a possible Secretary of Treasury. Oh, that's rich. The only thing nuttier would be McCain putting Phil "the deregulator" Gramm as his top economic advisor. What? He did that too? Oh, poor Meg. Poor John.
Cheddah

join:2001-12-31
San Rafael, CA
kudos:1

Re: Poor Meg

Actually they are only selling a 65% stake at $1.9B so they did not lose $700 million.
beaups

join:2003-08-11
Hilliard, OH
Sold 2/3's stake for 1.9 which puts the value at rought 2.9bn. Breakeven...but an asset purchased in 05 and hasn't lost value in 4 years is a win in today's economy. Nice rant though.
ackman

join:2000-10-04
Acworth, GA

Re: Poor Meg

Error noted, thanks for the correction. I just never could understand what buying a phone service would do for the ebay product. During a time when fees kept rising and little was being done to increase site traffic and reduce fraud, this purchase was a complete distraction for ebay.
braclark

join:2006-09-01
Rowley, MA

FVF

That's a 46.5 million dollar final value fee!!!

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
Reviews:
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Re: FVF

said by braclark:

That's a 46.5 million dollar final value fee!!!
You forgot the Paypal charge
--
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
kudos:5
Reviews:
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Re: FVF

said by KrK:

said by braclark:

That's a 46.5 million dollar final value fee!!!
You forgot the Paypal charge
And your PayPal account has been frozen due to unusual activity. Please fax us a copy of....
--
PRescott7-2097

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