TechCrunch is reporting that “Something big is brewing between Google and eBay’s Skype.” Whatever is brewing, whether it’s a full-blown acquisition or a partnership, this could be pretty big. Michael Arrington says that for several weeks now, there have been rumors that the two companies were chatting and trying to work out details, and that an announcement regarding what they intend to do will be made in the “near future.” So what could this mean for eBay and for Google should a deal be worked-out?
For eBay this could mean that they are finally able to ‘rid’ themselves of a company that hasn’t done a whole lot of good for them. You may recall that eBay acquired Skype back in September of 2005 for 2.6 billion. At the time, one of their intentions was to use Skype to help buyers and sellers communicate on eBay, which they tried but it didn’t go over so well. Not much good has come from the acquisition and eBay even took a $1.4 billion dollar asset-impairment last year during the 4th quarter to help with the promised Skype shareholder payouts that totaled 530 million. At that point, people were suggesting that eBay should ditch Skype all-together.
What does this mean for Google? Well, we already know that they have big plans for voice communication. They already offer GOOG-411 for free which we know is used for their speech-to-text model, and then they acquired GrandCentral back in June last year. Clearly Google is interested in voice and Skype could help them do big things. Our other thought was that they could integrate Skype into Google Talk. We’ve already seen a screenshot from a Google presentation which showed a screenshot of Google Talk with a “show dial-pad” link, so that tells us Google wants to help users dial-out and place phone calls right from Google Talk. Skype could help them do just this.
A Google acquisition of Skype makes a lot of sense and we’re thinking Skype would love to be under new leadership with a company who could devote the time and resources to make them profitable. And as for Google, Arrington says, “Skype is the glue that can pull all the nascent Google products together.” This could be interesting…
Source: Thanks for the tip Omar!
Google/Skype makes a lot more sense than eBay/Skype.
We all know GoogleTalk needs some attention.
If it happens, I’d be curious to see how much Google shells out for Skype.
Yes it does make a lot more sense. I imagine eBay would hope to get at least what they paid for Skype plus “extra” to cover some of the money they have lost with their “investment.”
The reason eBay bought Skype was to branch out into the Web 2.0 movement to sustain their company’s success into the future. The boom of ecommerce from the Web 1.0 bubble is beginning to level off. They are looking to keep their company relevant and ever growing by buying out some top products and services in the Web 2.0 movement/bubble.
Now as far as this rumor goes…
If it comes out of the mouth of Michael Arrington it shouldn’t just be taken with a grain of salt, it should be taken with a huge bag of salt. When he talks about having several highly reliable sources that have told him for some time that an acquisition/merger/etc. is about to happen…you should know that by several highly reliable sources, he means the many voices in his head giving him another fake story to write and use as linkbait to boost his ad revenue.
I’ve lost count of the times he’s claimed Digg was on the verge of being acquired, or the numerous other rumors he’s started that were never even remotely true. Not to mention the fact that he sticks by all his rumors unrelentingly, following a true Orwellian philosophy of never admitting you were wrong or that you lied, and always redirecting the blame for why things didn’t end in the way you said they would.
I now use his rumors of what will happen, as what absolutely won’t happen. I can’t think of anyone in new media with less credibility. I put him up there, or should I say down there, with the mainstream media tools.
Not to mention this post was released on April Fools Day, not that that makes this post any less credible than his daily rumor-mongering posts.
/end rant here/
At least I won’t be missing the old Google Talk.
Wow Curtiss, that was quite the rant. I agree that sometimes Arrington doesn’t always have it right, but on several ocassions he has. It’ll be interesting to see if anythihng comes out of this one.