eBay to divorce Skype on Wall St

eBay plans to spin off Skype sometime in 2010, having failed to turn itself into a Web 2.0 telecoms hybrid. eBay said today it's targeting an initial public offering for Skype in the first half of next year. The IPO idea follows recent rumors that Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis were rounding up private equity …

[richard]

a bollox idea is still a bollox idea

even if you throw hundreds of millions of dollars at it!

[George]

Hate to say I told you so...

...but how do you make money from something free? Adverts aren't enough, and then if you ask someone to pay then kind of defeats the object!

Still somebody visionary may come along with a good idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

It was the result of Blue Sky 'thinking'

As an occasional eBay user, I thought it was a really dumb idea to propose sellers could have a Skype link on their items so potential buyers could talk to them about it.

I get enough time wasters via email when selling, so to have them phone you too!

Definitely was a decision not clouded by thought.

[Anonymous Coward]

Amazon?

-- Whitman is now campaigning to become governor of California based on her "solid" achievements as a business chief whilst running Amazon. --

Hm... methinks Jeff Bezos would have a slight disagreement with that statement...

Paris, because she could probably run eBay better...

[Anonymous Coward]

WARNING: lame joke

Probbly should just put Skype on ebay to get shot of it -

hahahahahahahaha

Not as funny as those schmucks buying it in the first place ...

[Joe K]

Hilarious numbers there

Exactly how many arses were those ridiculous figures pulled out of?

[Michael Fremlins]

The National Security Agency?

Wasn't it reported that the US NSA were prepared to spend "billions" for a Skype-tapping system? Why not buy the company, like Victor Kiam? Anonymously, of course...

[Sam Liddicott]

telecoms?

How did they expect to be an internet telecoms provider with their secret proprietary protocols?

It sort of spoils interoperability.

Only lately have they got wise to this problem and started to work towards interoperating with SIP and asterisk, and no doubt then only to help oil the sale.

[Mad Hacker]

Surprised they ever realized/admitted it didn't make sense

To anyone outside the reality distortion field eBay and PayPal operate in this seemed like a horrible decision.

I'm just impressed they were able to realize and admit it eventually.