Then Again, eBay Claims It's Still Hunting For Skype Synergies

from the there-must-be-a-pony-in-there-somewhere dept

Fri, Apr 18th 2008 3:11pm — Mike Masnick

Just a month ago, the guy in charge of Skype finally admitted that eBay had given up trying to find the mythical "synergies" between eBay and Skype as the few they had suggested turned out not to exist. Apparently, Skype's GM isn't on the same page as his boss, eBay CEO John Donahoe. He was just quoted saying that eBay will spend this year trying to find synergies with Skype and if it still can't find any, it may sell off or spinoff the unit. Given the lack of synergies so far and the massive write down on the purchase price, you have to figure they're going to be digging pretty deep to turn up any kind of synergy between Skype and eBay.

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Filed Under: skype, synergies
Companies: ebay, skype

6 Comments

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Dave, 18 Apr 2008 @ 5:28pm

I know!
How about real live auctioneers counting down the last few minutes of bid stuffing!
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 19 Apr 2008 @ 3:51am

Who would buy Skype?
If they sold Skype, who would buy it? The write down on its purchase price was precisely because it's been so lousy at making money. Who would be able to do a better job?
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Scogostology, 20 Apr 2008 @ 3:33am

Then Again, eBay Claims It's Still Hunting
Ebay stole $30 from me in unauthorized billing and as of today has refused to pay me. A company that will pay billions of dollars for a skimpy software that any dimwit can create in a week for $5,000 tells me all that I need to know. It is very baffling to me that this company is still in business????
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Dudley, 20 Apr 2008 @ 9:44am

Skype
Google will buy it.
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blah, 21 Apr 2008 @ 2:39am

>

precisely. however just because ebay failed to generate cash from the asset does not mean that some other company will not be able to.

question is who will be able to monetize this. GOOG?
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Powerkor, 21 Apr 2008 @ 5:36am

I hope google buys it. They will be able to do more... Since they do more. Obvious enough eh?
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