eBay Buys Skype for $4.1 Billion
September 11, 2005 | by Luis F. Escalante
eBay creates one-click trust between buyers and sellers.
According to a BusinessWeek article, eBay will be holding an "investors conference call" at 5am PST for an announcement to be made 2 hours before. Since the eBay, Skype talks began early last week, there's been speculation on whether or not this will happen.
An article on MarketWatch, which was last updated at 11:40PM EST (Sept. 11), states eBay and Skype are in the final stages of this deal and would cost as much as $4.1 billion, "if Skype hits certain performance targets between now and 2008." Niklas and Janus, Skype's founders, will receive $1.3 billion in cash, $1.3 billion in stock, and $1.5 billion in rewards, guaranteeing that most of Skype's staff will stick around.
How will this fit into eBay's plans of Internet dominance? One-click calling between sellers and buyers. eBay has released a PowerPoint that better explains why they bought Skype and what they plan to do with the privately held company.
eBay, like News Corp., seems to be on a shopping spree as well. They recently completed the acquisition of Shopping.com. Web 2.0 is officially here.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Luis F. Escalante on Sep 12th, 2005 at 12:32 AM:
Remember the late 90's? It's starting all over again! Hence Web 2.0.
News Corp. is buying up properties, CNET is for sale, Google is being its usual self, Yahoo and MSN want to be like Google, podcasting and rss related companies are getting VC like no other, etc.
I don't get it either but if eBay sees a future in it then more power to them.
David Orban on Sep 12th, 2005 at 5:35 AM:
The VOIP space is heating up lately (overheating?). There are other properties out there that must represent an attractive buy for those companies that feel their presence in VOIP is a must.
Ian Bell on Sep 12th, 2005 at 6:57 AM:
$4.1 Billion is overkill and a waste of money IMO. I would maybe expect that much for a company as large as Vonage, but Skype is only really proven among very early adopters and blog fans. It may be growing at a fast rate, but $4.1 Billion worth?
Anyone have some traffic and revenue numbers they can link or post to from Skype? I would be curious to see how well the company is doing.
John Price on Sep 12th, 2005 at 8:01 AM:
Wheerrrg... 4 billion?? That's a hell of a lot. Lucky (for the founder)
ebay on Oct 11th, 2005 at 5:43 AM:
"The VOIP space is heating up lately (overheating?). There are other properties out there that must represent an attractive buy for those companies that feel their presence in VOIP is a must." There is also some concurrent ! Look at voipbuster
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fungku on Sep 12th, 2005 at 12:26 AM:
4 Billion??? I can't believe Skype could go for that much. A couple hundred million, sure... 4B?? Pinch me please.