eBay News: Skype, Oprah and Reuters

An excellent development occurred for eBay (EBAY) on Monday March 3rd. Skype has teamed up with Oprah and bestselling author Eckhart Tolle for an exclusive, Skype-sponsored, worldwide online class. For starters, this is huge news as it allows Skype to enter the U.S household. Oprah appeals to many viewers in the United States. Although Skype is well known in Europe and Asia, it is virtually unknown in the United States. Oprah wouldn't team up with Skype if she felt it was a fly by night outfit. Thus, I believe this is ground breaking news. One of those little cracks that fall through and barely create a whimper until millions of households throughout the U.S. begin to familiarize themselves with Skype.

On a side note, why was it necessary for Reuters to issue a press release stating eBay's mention of their risks in their annual report. Every company lists their risks in their reports. For example, a company goes out of its way to list every possible risk. One wonders why they didn't add the following: if a meteor was to strike earth, this may hurt eBay's chances of doing business or in the event of a nuclear war, eBay may have difficulty operating. Thus, Reuters took it upon itself to dedicate an entire article to this common annual report news of potential risks. A novice investor upon viewing this report would have alarm bells going off in his/her head. Reuters should take more responsibility in their actions or else they may have many angry people on their hands who sold on this news, which was very biased indeed. Shame on you Reuters.

Disclosure: Author has a long position in eBay

Comments

[Trish:]

"Author has a long position in ebay" - go figure

2008 Mar 04 07:15 AM

[Cloudhopper:]

I became a Skype user when it first came out and I live in the U.S, so I don't quite buy that it is not well known in this country. My reason for having it is that I have friends in different parts of the world and it makes keeping in touch with them easy and inexpensive.

2008 Mar 04 10:14 AM

[Aussie Battler:]

Why Paul? , because someone in eBay has been telling something less than accurate to the media , that the sellers are just noise that it won't make any difference to changes being made .
No right for a seller to leave a Negative or a neutral for a crook buyer amongst other restrictive new rules (May) no wonder there will be the biggest fuss against against ebay ever starting on MAYDAY 1st of May , There are tens of thousands of of sellers pledging support to not list , not buy and not bid . sellers are at long last realizing that these totally unfair new rules will affect them also with less and less variety of goods as huge corporations replace the very folks who built up greedbay.
How fair is it to have a discriminatory system biased against some sellers !!
Read the other forums , there are the organized serial something for nothing feral bidders who are already publicising how to rip off honest buyers through feebay AND Paypal so they get the item and a refund everytime , simple as sending an empty box back before a refund and claiming the goods were in there !!
Some are already trying it not realizing that the feedback changes do not occur until May !
Have you an independent view on ebays dictatorial and repressive ways ?
eBay WAS the only game in town, not for much longer the opposition is growing stronger daily .
That is why Reuters article was the truth and accurate , like ebays report may have been .
Their double speak has the attention of seelers , buyers and the regulatory folks .
There probably wont be a meteor hit the planet for a while , however Paul you will find that there will be enough confusion and turmoil , noise and fallout for some as ebays foundations hit the deck sooner than later.
Thank you for informing that you have a vested interest in feebay .
How are the stock prices going?.
They may reach your trigger point soon .

2008 Mar 05 02:02 AM