Yesterday's announcement that
eBay is to acquire Skype has set the user community ablaze with questions about how the merger will affect both companies. Meg Whitman,
eBay
CEO, insists that the tecnology will be integrated into eBay's auction flow, enabling future services whereby prospective buyers and sellers could communicate by voice regarding items on auction. All this would come at an additional price, of course, which eBay is banking on to increase their revenue and help drive them into yet another quantum stock leap.
But
Skype
users, 54 million strong and growing at 150,000 a day, are waiting a signal that it will still be business as usual at the VoIP company. There is probably not much worry that they will be left out in the cold, but the real question is one of price-points. If eBay plans to use Skype as a value-added feature, what about eBayer's who are also Skype users today?
All this will be revealed over time, but in the interim, we can't help but wonder at the $2.6 - $4.1 billion price tag for a company that, while strong and growing, is still set to generate only about $60 million in sales this year. That's a pretty high multiple, and it goes without saying that eBay needs some specific plans put in place quickly to make it worthwhile.
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