Memo to eBay: Just Sell Skype Already

At this point, I couldn’t really care less who eBay sells Skype to, whether it’s Google — as the current crop of rumours seems to indicate — or Microsoft, or even Dunkin Donuts for that matter (don’t laugh; I can see a business model there). As Fred notes, it has never made any sense as part of eBay, and certainly not $4-billion worth of sense, and it doesn’t make any sense now. Meg Whitman managed to sell that idea to a gullible board desperate for growth of any kind, and instead they got a bag of goodwill the size of Manhattan, which they eventually wrote off.

Skype could have a huge amount of value as part of Google. Maybe even as much as eBay offered in the beginning, but certainly a lot more than it has produced for the auction provider. Google has made it obvious that it wants to move into mobile with Android, it’s financing wireless initiatives — voice calling either on the PC or on a mobile makes sense as a place for Google to go, if only because it could integrate the app not just with Google Talk but with its core search business and its money-spinning keyword ad business. Let’s hope this one actually comes true.

Comments

[Lisa]

Your suggestions makes a lot of sense. But when did Google ever buy a company for market share as opposed to technology?

[vboring]

isn't the PC-to-Phone (and Phone-to-PC) communication a tech that skype offers and google talk doesn't?

[NetworkEffect]

if you haven't yet realized the value of skype, you will someday. it's a digital delivery ecosystem, whether its voice, video, file sharing, etc. And it's the fastest growing customer base in the history of the Internet. why do SuperBowl ads cost $2M? because everyone's watching. what do you think advertisers would pay for placement in front of the fastest growing customer base on the Internet - one that is currently at 200M+ and still growing? One that is owned by a company that also owns the largest and fastest growing online payment ecosystem? And they also own the largest ecommerce ecosystem as well. If eBay sells Skype, it will be the biggest mistake they ever make. The revenue applications are enormous, and they are compounded by the fact that eBay also has the marketplace business and PayPal. With Skype, eBay will win Web 2.0. If they sell it, they will eventually loose, and may even loose grip over their payment and commerce ecosystems someday.

[gatekeeper]

I love my eBay. I love my Skype. But I do NOT like having a Skype pop-up on my screen EVERY time I look at an item on eBay. Why does eBay insist on forcing this pop-up on me repeatedly ... when I'm already running Skype on my desktop???? A mismatch from the git-go.