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Skype Has A Buyer - A Marc Andressen FundViews: 66
Sep 18, 2009 7:19 pmSkype Has A Buyer - A Marc Andressen Fund#

Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605

I wonder what is going on here. Why would Ebay want to unload Skype to a venture capital fund? The only thing I can think is that the venture capital fund plans to flip it - sell it to someone else for even more money. But then, it looks like the Andressen fund is not going to be able to put up all the money itself to even do that. The Skype sale is going to be part of a group purchase. I would think that would make a future sale all the more difficult.

I recently learned that Ebay purchased Skype for $4.1 billion, but $1 billion of that amount was never paid. How is it that Ebay can turn around and sell something like a $4.1 billion company without actually having full ownership of it? Could I go out and purchase a car and sell it if I did not have full title to the car? Well, that appears to be what Ebay is doing.

Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!


Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605

Sep 18, 2009 8:11 pmre: Skype Has A Buyer - A Marc Andressen Fund#

Scott Wolpow
VC's do not flip companies. They may also buy Vonage or vertical realted companies. eBay [proper way to spell it] owes 1 Billion in warrants. I assume that the new company will buy those warrants. eBay is losing money on teh deal. They are selling for two reasons.
1) It was stupid to buy it in the first place
2) With the cash tehy can buy other markets they are losing shares in.
BTW if you use my quotes in any other venue then ryze, please request permission first.


Private Reply to Scott Wolpow

Sep 18, 2009 10:40 pmre: re: Skype Has A Buyer - A Marc Andressen Fund#

Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605

Scott,

You say eBay was stupid to buy Skype in the first place. Why do you say that? Because the price tag was $4.1 billion? Or, is it because the VOIP product was not really tied into what eBay does?

Who would be smart to buy Skype? Google already has Google Talk and is planning to come out with some kind of special communication setup. Vonage is a direct competitor of Skype. Who do you see as a viable candidate that could both afford and benefit from owning Skype?

I actually thought eBay would do something real creative with Skype. But, I don't think they did much with Skype since they bought it. I think most of what Skype did it did on its own - without zeroing in on the services provided by eBay.

Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Need PR?...Call Lamar!


Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 707-709-8605

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