Skype Plus?
April 20th, 2007 Posted in M&A
So a thought about eBay’s apparent acquisition of StumbleUpon: what if eBay plans to expand the Skype platform so it has a bunch of other features beyond making free telephone calls and instant-message. What if eBay wants Skype to an application that you have open all day and use for all kinds of things - search, eBay auctions, phone calls, instant messaging, surf the Web, etc. Don’t get me wrong, Skype is becoming a pretty good business as reflected by the fact first-quarter revenue climbed 123% to $79-million from $35-million a year ago. Then again, eBay paid $3.1-billion for Skype so maybe it has a loftier strategic plans than a $300-million to $500-million telecom business.
