Pocket PC Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Pocket PC Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves
OFF-TOPIC eBay Acquires Skype
Posted by Darius Wey @ 08:45 AM
"eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY; www.ebay.com) has agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA, the global Internet communications company, for approximately $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration. The acquisition will strengthen eBay’s global marketplace and payments platform, while opening several new lines of business and creating significant new monetization opportunities for the company. The deal also represents a major opportunity for Skype to advance its leadership in Internet voice communications and offer people worldwide new ways to communicate in a global online era. Skype, eBay and PayPal will create an unparalleled ecommerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world."



2005 has proven to be a hotbed for mammoth acquisitions, and this one is no exception. Just announced today is eBay's acquisition of Skype Technologies, the company behind Skype for Pocket PC (and Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux). The press release outlines some of eBay's plans with Skype, but plans aside, history has shown that acquisitions can go either way (i.e. success or failure). Your thoughts on this one?