eBay Might Sell Skype and PayPal?!

[hooray]

Read this on Digg. I hope this day will come... but I doubt they will sell PayPal, Skype maybe.

Ebay considers sale of Skype subsidiary
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Thursday Apr 17 2008 13:00

Ebay will consider selling off its Skype internet phone subsidiary at the end of this year if it fails to find ways to use the fast-growing service to support its core e-commerce business, according to the company's chief executive.

The comments from John Donahoe, who took over at the end of last month, are the most direct indication yet that Ebay is thinking of scrapping the ill-starred acquisition. It paid $3.1bn, but wrote down the value of the business by $1.4bn last year after concluding it would not match earlier hopes.

Ebay originally believed that Skype would oil the wheels of its online markets by making communications easier between buyers and sellers, while also supporting new business models such as "click to call". Nearly three years after the acquisition, however, Ebay has yet to prove Skype can help its other businesses.

"What we're testing this year are the synergies," Mr Donahoe told the Financial Times this week after Ebay reported its latest earnings. "If the synergies are strong, we'll keep it in our portfolio. If not, we'll reassess it." That could lead to the disposal of the business, he indicated.

While the acquisition of Skype has widely come to be seen as a blunder for Ebay, the phone service itself has continued to grow fast, adding another 33m registered users in the first three months of this year to reach 309m. Although most use it for free internet phone calls, the addition of extra paid services helped Skype to increase its revenues to $126m in the first three months of this year, up 61 per cent from the year before.

"What we know is, Skype is a great stand-alone business," Ebay's CEO said. Its revenues this year are set to top $500m and the service will be profitable, he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Donahoe moved to silence suggestions that have started to circulate in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street that Ebay should also consider selling its PayPal division to boost its flagging share price.

With revenues running at an annualised $2.3bn and a growth rate of more than 30 per cent, the online payment service has enjoyed consistently higher growth than Ebay's core e-commerce operations and some bankers speculate it could be worth as much as $20bn as a standalone company, or almost half of Ebay's total stock market value. With much of its growth coming from handling payments that do not take place on Ebay, PayPal has less strategic reason to remain part of the group.

Mr Donahoe said there were still strong advantages to keeping PayPal in Ebay and that he expected to continue to own the payment service "for many years".

FT.com - Ebay considers sale of Skype subsidiary

Digg - eBay Will Sell Skype

[ebayaintstupid]

because people don't want to do face to face customer service, which is what EBAY originally thought.

I think most people do their EBAYing in their PJs, not in a suit and tie. LOL.

They will never sell Paypal. That is the real money maker and manipulation tool.

[aspkin]

I thought I read something about Google going to buy skype. That was a couple weeks ago, I'm not sure if its going through or not.

[ebayaintstupid]

why would they? They have everything they need to make an EBAY.

Within a year or two, they will have GBAY. But they are taking the slow path, which is smart because dealing with all the fraud and other nonsense is expensive.

The primary thing they need to restore is safe listing with anonymity. People that auction items aren't Walmart. They want their privacy. It was what, at one time, made EBAY great.

All GBAY has to do is come up with a way to guarantee safe buyer/seller exchange (not easy at all), proper feedback (again hard) and anonymous transfer of goods. And they have a HUGE WINNER!!!

[GreenBean]

Oh Happy Days then if this happens.

http://techcrunch.com/2008/04/01/googleskype

[ebayaintstupid]

are among the prime sights with an incentive to infect us?

I don't like the idea that some company can scan my computer too easily. Once they are on my machine, they can send data out from my machine.

It is why I NEVER allow Active X Controls to be downloaded. But even Java Applets can get you to a degree.

So much spying is going on. I hate worrying about it. But EBAY and Paypal alerted us to it big time.

[jscan]

even if they did sell skype, it doesnt make much difference to me.

[Thechronicles]

i wudnt buy paypal, my highest offer is 99 cents
not a penny more, if they sell it no one is going to use it to accept payments on ebay, people only do right now because they have to, and for obvious reasons like protection etc. blah blah blah.

[jscan]

id rather buy western union, $22 is the average charge for a transfer. what a ripppp

[Thechronicles]

lol i agree with jscan

[ebayaintstupid]

shoot. I hate Paypal, and I might change the way it was managed, but it is worth billions. And to date, it is the ONLY growth vehicle for EBAY.

Paypal is what continually beats expectations. That is why they are forcing it down our throats now.

But that only works so long...

[Thechronicles]

does anyone know when google is planing to launch their auction website?

[Thechronicles]

btw when google does launch its website and they will, everyone will forget about ebay.

its only a matter of time and ebay knows it, thats why there going so hard to get every penny in their pockets as possible.

[ebayaintstupid]

I think they are at least a year or two away. It is hard to get it down so people will trust your site.

Google Base is the platform. Google is the search engine. Google Checkout is the Paypal.

All you need is an auction front end and Google Engineers could come up with that in a week-end.

But they are still learning the customer support and fraud issues involved. And the fact that the initial people they draw will be those that cannot get on EBAY anymore.

I will tell you one thing. If GBAY does arrive and proves a success. I will be the absolute best doobee on their site I can be no matter what they request I do. I think many feel the same way.

The hope is they will be better. But I am not so sure.

[Thechronicles]

wow, it will take them 1-2 more years?
they said they plan on releasing a auction website 3 years ago

[jscan]

patience is what we need, the chronicles we should count our pennies and make a bid on western union. lolssss

[Thechronicles]

well i hope they launch it soon, i just cant wait
=)

[mantisinc]

Oh comeon, I don't believe they will sell paypal. After all the years promoting it as part of eBay, and now making it compulsory in several countries, they won't sell up.

As for skype, I don't use it, so couldn't give a dam really.

[Thechronicles]

im really surprised that skype's revenue is so high.

[GreenBean]

It is surprising about skype's revenue. Their services sux. And after I found out that ebay
was their guardian, I disposed of their services quickly.

[Thechronicles]

i remember a LONG TIME AGO when ebay was a respectable name.

[Jonas]

GreenBean, yeah I wonder how many people quit skype because ebay bought them.