eBay buys Skype?

September 8, 2005

Greg Galitzine blogs about a WSJ report that claims eBay plans on buying Skype for between $2 and $3 billion.

Quoting Greg who cites the WSJ:

One of the unnamed sources in the Journal story said that “eBay was
keen on adding services that make it easier to buy and sell goods
online, as it did when it acquired the electronic-payment processing
service PayPal in 2002.”

Greg states he doesn't get the potential Skype acquisition. I'm with him.

Sure you could add a little Skype Me button next to each eBay online listing, but how many auctioners want to be bothered to interact via voice? Some might I suppose, especially for large ticket items such as cars, but more auctioners I would bet prefer to interact anonymously using email. There are plenty of web call-me button companies such as eStara that are a heck of a lot cheaper than $2-$3 billion.

Also, eBay has enough critical mass that is they wanted to add a "Call me" button to all the auctions and offer a free softphone download people would do it. I think with several open source softphones available eBay could have build their own VoIP softphone client for a heck of a lot less than buying Skype.

Update: Russell Shaw has a different point of view...
"If eBay keeps pursuing this, they are smart. I draw from the feedback of a close relative, who is an eBay Power Seller. She started her own business on eBay, but over the years, has transitioned it into her own site. She now views her eBay experiences as kind of e-commerce training wheels - a stage in her business that she has long transcended. While grateful for what she learned on eBay, she'd rather not pay the commission that comes with eBay sales. I have to think that there are tens of thousands of people like her. It would make sense for eBay to come up with strategies for additional revenue. Skype could well be it."

I don't discount that VoIP could be a valuable selling tool, especially for eBay power sellers that have just as good "verbal sales pitches" as they do "email sales pitches", but $2-$3 billion?



Post a comment

See this page in TechnoratiTechnoratibook mark in del.icio.usDel.icio.usSlashdot.comSlashdotSubmit to Digg.comDigg

Tags: ,

Search Technorati: ,
Related Tags: , , , ,

Listed below are links to sites that reference eBay buys Skype?:

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/mt3/t.fcgi/15115

» eBay looking to buy Skype? from SIPthat.com - Erik's daily musings on VoIP and IP Communications
Andy speculates and points to a few articles published today. If Skype would only just integrate SIP, we could all play. Tom has the right idea with click to call Skype services offered by eBay, but they could do this... [More]

Tracked on September 8, 2005 10:06 AM

» eBay and Skype a done deal from VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets
Rumors were laid to rest when eBay announced that it plans to acquire Skype by paying $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock. It also has performance encentives in the deal that would make a later payout... [More]

Tracked on September 12, 2005 9:05 AM

» eStara's take on the Skype eBay deal from VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets
eStara has been in the online click-to-call business longer than just about anyone. They have some perspectives on the eBay-Skype deal via their news release that is interesting.Funny, I actually just remembered I theorized along with skibare that eBay... [More]

Tracked on September 13, 2005 4:20 PM

» Microsoft vs. Google the Tit-for-Tat war from VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets
Two days ago I pondered whether Google would acquire Technorati or finally build their own blog search engine. Just a few hours later from this post, Google announced Google Blog Search. Actually, I planned it that way! ;) Of... [More]

Tracked on September 15, 2005 12:44 PM

» 2006 VoIP Predictions from VoIP & Gadgets Blog
I promised predictions for 2006 and so here they are. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, eh? ;) Let me first start my analyzing my 2005 VoIP predictions. Some I have abbreviated for brevity sake, so if you... [More]

Tracked on December 30, 2005 1:09 PM

Comments to eBay buys Skype?


  1. Rick :
    September 8, 2005 12:16 PM

    Here's a good article on the EBay synergies and possibilities. Like you, I wonder why not make my own softphone for less than 2 billion dollars. How much cash does EBay have?


(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)