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/

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.

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/

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.”

We all know GoogleTalk needs some attention.

If it happens, I’d be curious to see how much Google shells out for Skype.