ReveNews
eBay Buys Skype for $2.6 Billion Plus
It’s old news by now… eBay closed its acquisition of Skype for $2.6 billion plus up to $1.5 billion in performance bonuses over the next two to three years. That is huge. Not just the price for a 3 year old company but the impact of this transaction.
Do you remember how eBay was going after Amazon or Amazon was going after eBay? Or was it that Amazon was going after Google with A9? Those are nothing compared to what eBay has brought together.
First there was eBay which was great for used products. Half brought with it “Buy It Now” which helped propel eBay into the new products realm. PayPal gave eBay transaction processing. Shopping.com harkens back to “Miracle on 34th Street” in that if you can’t find it on eBay, eBay can help you find it anywhere else. Now with Skype, eBay becomes a real marketplace, a global flea market.
That’s the easy analysis. But there is so much more to this. It’s great that buyers and sellers will be able to communicate in a way that no one has to give out personal information (i.e. phone numbers). This is similar to how eBay has shielded e-mail addresses for years.
When I started at GoTo.com in early 1999, Local Search was the next big thing. It’s been that way ever since. Several GoTo / Overture alums have started companies focused on Local Search. None has succeeded. eBay will.
What has been missing from Local Search has been a mechanism to track phone calls. There have been attempts but little success. Skype brings exactly that to eBay. Google and Yahoo (Overture) do not have a mechanism to track phone calls. My plumber has a phone but not a website and possibly not even e-mail. It’s not necessary. If there is a way to track leads from the Web to my plumber’s phone, he can participate. The Yellow Pages are obsolete (or will be working with eBay).
Does this mean that eBay is the hands down winner? Of course not. Today eBay took a lead in this race in my opinion. Amazon is lagging. Pretty pictures of storefronts on A9 is not enough. Google has been rumored to be working on a VoIP service. Google Talk isn’t the answer but it may be a baby step. Yahoo has some of the peices but has been focused on content (media) and not transactions (plus Overture was never known for its technological prowess).
Keep your eyes out for more acquisitions by eBay… and everyone else.
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