Alec Saunders SquawkBox

The EBay/Skype story is really getting legs.  News.COM is covering it, including the masterful understatement that "the deal would represent a dramatic shift in strategy for the world’s largest online auction site."  Erik Lagerway (www.sipthat.com) also wrote a short piece, with the comment that "If Skype would only just integrate SIP, we could all play."

And one individual I know observed that Skype is always "about to be bought" just as they have a big announcement — makes it a lot easier to get the attention of the press.

Bell Canada announced today that they’re expanding their residential VoIP service.  The feature-set looks a lot like Vonage.  The details are at their website, and you can check if it’s available in your area on this page. 

Greg Galitzine is scratching his head over the EBay / Skype rumours as well.  Like me, he can’t understand why this makes sense.

While I understand the desire for even a leading company to maintain growth and identify new sources of revenue, but I don’t quite get the marriage of EBay and Skype. One of the unnamed sources in the Journal story said that “eBay was keen on adding services that make it easier to buy and sell goods online, as it did when it acquired the electronic-payment processing service PayPal in 2002.”

Does EBay want to enable buyers to talk to sellers? If that’s even a good idea, why not partner with or simply endorse one of the existing PC to PC VoIP services? Save the $3billion, and maybe take a small piece of each call generated within the EBay universe.

Andy’s point of view is interesting.  He’s looking at how the Skype announcement affects content providers –> radio, media companies like Disney, and so on, as opposed to their platform strategy.  Certainly with 160 million downloads, and a regular audience of more than 30 million users, Skype has just become one of the larger media audiences online. 

The Wall Street Journal apparently (I can’t see the article - it’s behind their firewall) reported this morning that EBay and Skype are in merger talks.  Skype has declined to comment. 

I guess I must be stupid, because I don’t see the strategic value to either party.

UPDATE: Andy Abramson points out that there is a cultural fit between the companies.  It’s still a stretch to turn that into a strategic fit, in my opinion.