Ebay is getting into the Voice Over IP game with a purchase of Skype for $2.6 billion plus large performance incentives. This seems to me to be a huge overpayment for getting into VOIP.
Even though Skype uses novel technology for making phone calls, there's no reason why Google or Yahoo! or any number of other companies could not provide equally good service for free or almost free through other methods. Indeed, Google put its toe in the water through Google Talk for a paltry sum of money -- probably in the low single-digit millions of dollars. Through modest investments, Google Talk could turn into a full-featured free or nearly free telephone provider.
Also, as I speculated before, Google Talk plus GoogleNet will mean worldwide free wireless phone calls for something south of $10 billion invested. :-)
Comments