[Asterisk-Users] Skype purchased by Ebay 2.6 Billion

[Kanuri, Seshu (Company IT)]

The article below, posted a while ago by a Wharton dude is very predictive and interesting on Skype's power.

http://www2.cio.com/higher/report3799.html

Some snippets from the article are pasted here:
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Skype's potential has a few big investors placing bets. Speaking at the AlwaysOn Innovation Summit at Stanford University on July 20, Tim Draper, founder and managing director of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, said he invested about $10 million in Skype after meeting with Zennström. Draper also funded Hotmail, a web-based email service that was acquired by Microsoft on New Year's Eve in 1997.

Steve McGeown, director of product management at Sandvine, a Waterloo, Ontario-based company that makes equipment for broadband networks, says Draper's bet could pay off. McGeown's colleagues use Skype regularly when traveling and have been putting Skype numbers on their business cards-a sign of mass market appeal. "Skype doesn't have a mass market yet, but I did get my first business card with a Skype number on it," says McGeown.

Takeover Target?
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What the future holds for Skype is unclear. Its options include:

Skype could emerge as a new communications platform that ties voice and video, not to mention millions of people together via handheld devices. Regardless, Dreze expects Skype to face increasing competition from the likes of Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. 

It could be acquired by an established communications or media company. Werbach says rumors about companies allegedly looking to buy Skype are a dime a dozen. Indeed, a report in CNET.com this week says that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. allegedly discussed buying Skype for around $3 billion, but that talks broke down. The big question is valuing Skype. When Zennström was asked how much Skype is worth, the CEO replied, "We don't know. We're happy to keep this a private company."

The company could be pulled into a regulatory fray over issues such as 911 calls as it grows into a de facto telecommunications company. 

Or it could remain an underground movement that continues to garner millions of users across the globe and is able to skirt regulatory concerns altogether. 

Another potential threat for Skype lies in cable and telecommunications companies that could block its use. However, Zennström says such a move would be counterproductive for the telecoms. "People use the Internet to get access to services," he notes. "If a telecommunications company is blocking access to those services it's telling people to go away." Given that fact, maybe it would make sense for a telecommunications carrier to simply buy Skype. "A takeover has potential, but the culture and the history of the company would be a challenge for most major telecom and media companies," says Werbach. "I would be surprised, but not shocked, if it was acquired." 

Seshu Kanuri
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