Submitted by Yi-Wyn Yen01.28.2009
Thunderdome
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This prediction is closed and has been judged.
Judgment made on April 1, 2009: No Google announcement that a Skype acquisition was made, which means this prediction did not come true. The community got this right. -- The Industry Standard
eBay wants to get rid of Skype, the Internet telephone service it bought in 2005 for $3.1 billion. The question is, does Google want to buy Skype?
Tech bloggers are speculating that eBay is peddling Skype to Google and providing some armchair M&A analysis of Google + Skype synergies like adding Skype to the mobile Android operating system or into Gmail.
Google certainly has enough cash to take Skype off eBay's hands. The question remains is can they turn Skype into a major moneymaker or will Skype be YouTube 2.0?
Prediction: Google announces that it will acquire Skype from eBay by April 1, 2009. For a favorable judgment, Google needs to publicly state an intention to purchase Skype.
Update: Based on the recent launch of Google's free phone service Google Voice, the likelihood of a Skype acquisition is low so the Standard has moved up the original closing date of Aug. 31, 2009 to April 1, 2009.
Image: Ryan Fanshaw Photography/Flickr
Price History
Prediction Statistics
| Betting Closes: | Apr 01 2009 | Current Consensus: | 4.97% | Total Bets: | 17 |
| Today's Change: | 0% | ||||
| Life Time High: | 48.75% | ||||
| Life Time Low: | 4.97% |
Comments
Google Voice to be officially launched very soon. That is a clear indication that Google will not be acquiring Skype any time soon (if ever).
No way...Cisco needs Skype a lot worse than Google. With their advancements with Grand Central, they have no need to pay a premium for Skype.
See article from today:
http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/topic.py?topic=16495
@David. I agree. It's extremely unlikely for Google to buy Skype now. But to keep this official, we'll have to wait to close it until Aug. 31 (though I may be inclined to move up the date).
I also think KC is right. Cisco is probably taking a hard look at Skype,
which eBay is desperate to hand off.
I disagree. I don't think Cisco needs Skype at all. Cisco is already highly prevalent in the VoIP arena covering both enterprises and managed operator VoIP services. Acquisition of Skype will blur its vendor status and makes it more difficult for them to participate in bids to supply its gears to managed carriers targeting residential VoIP services (i.e. FTTx technologies, etc).
Skype and Vonage services are "parasitic" in nature that it gobbles up bandwidth supplied by others. Managed operators "hate" these service providers.
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