The Wall street Journal had an article today about the deal in the works for Ebay to buy Skype for an estimated $2-$3 billion. As for what Ebay would want with an IP telephony company, I can’t really figure out. The WSJ article does mention however that Ebay feels that the online auction arena has matured(peaked) and they might be looking into broadening thier product base.
Could this have something to do with Yahoo buying into China’s Alibaba.com? Maybe Ebay is feeling a little threatened in the worlds largest emerging online market and needs a safety crutch. Might make sense to spend a couple billion dollars to shore up for the future.
Ebay should be carefull though. Buying Skype would instantly make them competitors with Google. Maybe Google will start an auction site.
WSJ requires a password to see the article, but Macworld was kind enough to have a write up on the WSJ article here.
Technorati Tags: Wall street Journal, Ebay, Skype, Ebay buys Skype
About Shane Ede
[…] Much speculation(some on my part) ended today as the online auction giant Ebay won the bidding for IP telephony service Skype with a 2.6 billion bid. Ebay says that they will be paying half(1.3 billion) in cash and the other half in Ebay stock. […]