Is Skype On Sale at eBay? eBay overpaid, but Skype's a good business. Buyers? Maybe Microsoft, Google, or a big telco

摘要

IN ITS MERE FIVE YEARS of existence the word "Skype" has taken on an unusual dual meaning in the Internet world -known equally as a stunningly successful example of consumer adoption and a dealmaking flop of multibillion-dollar proportions. On one hand, Skype is a startup with more than 300 million users, many of whom actually pay for the phone calls they place across the globe using a computer and Skype's free software. On the other, Skype can't shake its rap as Meg Whitman's folly, the company that in 2005 snookered the former eBay chief executive into paying what ultimately became USD3.1 billion for promised "synergies" that never materialized, triggering a write-down of USD1.4 billion only two years later.