Skype Archives

Microsoft buys Skype: comparison with eBay deal logic

11 May 2011 by Rob Bratby

The big story yesterday was the acquisition of Skype by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. It was only 6 years ago that eBay bought Skype for $ 2.6 billion. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the publicly announced rationales for the deals. First, here is Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer yesterday: “Skype is …

And the killer application for 2011 is …

2 January 2011 by Rob Bratby

I’m very excited to have had my first re-tweet, so today’s post develops the thought further. The retweet was of an economist article which, in contrast to the emerging consensus that traditional telephone calls are dead quotes a recent Ofcom international research report as evidence that whilst fixed line volumes are declining across the world, …