So, eBay has agreed to buy Skype (provider of voice calls over the internet) for between US$2.6 billion and US$4.1 billion.
This is a whole new business for eBay and with that comes challenges. Sure there will be the benefit of reading an ad and calling the advertiser with the click of a button. But it’s a ton of money to pay for that.
I’m sure the folks at eBay have a strategy. What it does for sure is it puts eBay back in orbit with the other major online players. The big get bigger and the smaller, well… Now more than even the Net is a size game and executives are tossing truckloads of cash and paper around to get big or remain big. It all looks amazing from where I sit in my small retail newsagency and software company. Interesting reading nevertheless.
If those of us in the news and information needed a ‘sign’ that our world has changed then this and the recent deals announced by News Corporation are it. We need to be building business models which rely less on over the counter news and information product.