eBay looks to flog useless stuff

eBay has sold web bookmarking site StumbleUpon back to its founders, and could do the same with Skype, according to reports. The online tat bazaar swallowed StumbleUpon for $75m in 2007 in an apparently aimless fit of web 2.0 envy. It's now back in the hand of founders Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, backed by venture capital. …

[Anonymous Coward]

Stumble

Oh I'm glad eBay won't own Stumble Upon any more. Like many others I'm sure I left Stumble Upon when it was announced.

[Anonymous Coward]

How did they spend the $2.6 billion?

They sold Skype to ebay for $2.6 billion.

Now they're going to buy it back for less than $2.6 billion.

But they have to go to private equity to get the money.

So what did they do with the $2.6 billion? Did they spend it? Did they "invest" it with Bernie Madoff?

[Anonymous Coward]

Regarding that $2.6 billion

I have two words for you: "hookers" and "blow"

[Anonymous Coward]

NSA to bid?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_for_skype_pwnage/

Black helicopter (natch)

[Karl Rasmusson]

They should sell that idiot Donohue.

If they get anything for him, it'll be worth offloading that moron and his "we hate our sellers" mantra.

[g e]

Private equity?

So does that mean they get Skype back for nearly nothing with the Private Equity people stumping up most of the cash?

A most excellent ruse.

[Peter Clarke]

Re: How did they spend the $2.6 billion?

Some they spent on fast cars, some on fast women, some on drink, the rest they wasted :) (c) George Best

Seriously, why risk your own money when others may be willing to do it for you.

[Greg]

@AC

Hookers and blow? $2.6 billion? Did they sleep with every woman in North America then snort the entire of South America?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:How did they spend the $2.6 billion?

They never got it all, simple as that.

I have no doubt that there were other people involved in the owning of Skype before ebay came along.

If the founders managed to keep 51% control, then that's $1.3B in their bank.

It's likely the people who originally invested, and made their bucks don't want to give it up so easily.

I know if I had invested in skype and made $400M I wouldn't be looking to risk that money in a climate such as this.

[Matt Eagles]

Private sector, the last hiding place of the incompetent?

As Lewis Page likes to point out the public sector doesn't always spend money in an efficient or well planned manner. However having watched the banks evaporate and magnificently stupid shopping trips like this from ebay I feel rather happy my taxes are being managed by the slightly blundering civil service rather than the plainly batshit crazy private sector.

[al]

Re: Regarding that $2.6 billion @ac @ greg

I think AC might be thinking about the likes of Heather Mills. ;-)

PH, she could help with some binge shopping and a different kind of blow.

[Andrew Holt]

Buyer's protection

If I bought Skype using PayPal would I get buyer's protection?

[Anonymous Coward]

dragons den

.. on the tele, seems to be filled with people valuing their companies at huge amounts despite making almost nothing....

Now i see where they got the idea from ... 2.6 billion for a company that makes 145 million a year... that is a very long time to make back your investment.... even i can see that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:Dragons Den.

$150m odd in the _last quarter_ of 2008.

So maybe more like $600m a year, I guess.

So it's not that bad a deal, really.

I'll get your coat.

[Adam Williamson]

@ACs 12:32 and 13:06

Note to the ACs at 12:32 and 13:06: revenue != profit.

[Robert Moore]

Auction number

Does anyone know the auction number for skype?

[A J Stiles]

Skype

Well, Skype is bollocks anyway. If you want to sell telecommunications services, you have to communicate nicely with other people. Using your own jealously-guarded, proprietary protocol while others around you are using an open, published protocol would be a recipe for alienation even if you were first to the table.

The minute Skype is made compatible with proper VoIP (for which read: Asterisk), there's suddenly no reason to be using Skype as opposed to any of the existing applications which use the open IAX protocol.

Come to think of it, anyone with an IAX-compliant application that is easy for chavs to download could knock Skype off their perch.

[Jess]

Skype sucks

After using sip with hardware and xlite for a few years, I had to use skype for video the other day. It was so bad, we ended up using a normal landline and turning off skype's sound.