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On Wed, 11 May 2011, Henry Bremridge wrote:
On Wed, May 11, 2011 at 06:54:14PM +0100, Gordon Henderson wrote:How can they be worth $8 million if there's no revenue stream? (Ok, there is in the form of Skype-Out, etc. but is that covering their costs?)PS Billion
Yes, I meant B, really!
Of have I missed something obvious...In the FT today I have seen two theories - MSFT placing advertising in the video element of Skype and making money - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/e4866140-7bef-11e0-9b16-00144feabdc0.html Perhaps Microsoft was thinking only about protecting the current franchise. If Google or Facebook got hold of Skype, they would be closer to building a suite of products that could shake users loose from Office/Windows. To prevent that, Microsoft was prepared to pay an amount that, on traditional metrics, looks insane.
Looks like Google didn't want Skype - according to this, anyway: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/why-google-does-not-own-skype/
Oddly enough Skype was originally sold to Ebay who (presumably) could not make enough money at it and sold it to some private capital people at $5bn who then sold it to MSFT.
Who wants to be phoned at all times about that old tat you're trying to flog on eBay ;-)
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq