[Asterisk-Users] Skype purchased by Ebay 2.6 Billion

[Brian Capouch]

Kanuri, Seshu (Company IT) wrote:
> Ebay is seething with rage as yahoo took 40% stake in Alibaba in China.
> They want to counter that by acquring a large user base in Asia, so that
> their experience in Japan (Where ebay was kicked out completely by local
> players) is not repeated in China and India.
> 
> This is an example of how you could make mistakes, if you don't keep
> your cool and learn to count from 1 to 10 before you prss the trigger on
> the gun.
> 

Stir into that several other aspects of Skypedom:

* Skype is, for better or worse, perceived as the spawn of Kazaa.  Big 
Red Flag.

* All aspects of their operations are secret, proprietary, undocumented, 
however you want to call it.  Not just closed, CLOSED.

* Part of their friendly user experience is derived from cheating on 
accepted norms of network behavior.  In particular, some opine that if 
network managers eventually are able to stop Skype from hijacking port 
80, there may be some operational difficulties ahead.

* How will Skype handle CALEA requirements without opening themselves up?

* How will Skype handle E911 in the US, given its huge footprint outside 
of the US?

* I agree with two premises seen in this thread: Ebay is now a lumbering 
giant, and it's hard to imagine them being fleet enough to move smoothly 
into the turbulent waters of VoIP.  Second, the almost certainly could 
have built something as good as Skype with the $2.6B.

* Googletalk is "open," with pretensions of opening up even further in 
the future.  That should count for something in the mindshare wars, 
although it doesn't right now.

Time will tell, as it tells all tales.

B.