Would Google buy Skype?
Google has made some interesting moves lately that point to a move into the unified communications arena. Today Google named Patrick Pichette CFO. Pichette’s experience at BCE in Canada could be a boon for Google as it explands its offering and possibly peers with service providers for a UC offering. Picture this, a merge of GTalk, GMail and the power of the Google Apps and Gadgets APIs with the installed base and technology of Skype.
Skype has underperformed since being purchased by ebay. I can’t say I’m surprised. That acquisition always puzzled me from a business integration perspective. Ebay could offload Skype to Google which would make ebay’s shareholders happy. Google would likely pick up Skype for a song and it could provide a lot of value as the core to an “all-google” unified communications offering. It’s another area where Google could compete with Microsoft coming from the grassroots users upward and challenging in the enterprise applications arena.
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A purchase of Skype by Google definitely makes sense to me.
I was at Ebay when the Skype acquisition took. It was difficult to get any kind of description what it all meant, even from the inside. Ebay bid on an auction for something they never really used.
That reminds me I have a Michael Vick jersey somewhere….
on June 25, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
An interesting hire to say the least. I think you’re right in thinking this move has much to do with Google’s telecom plans. The question is whether is the move Google may want to take to establish a bigger foothold.
Mark
on June 26, 2008 @ 8:57 am
Mark, what would you say are some bigger targets to establish a bigger foothold in telecom/UC?
The marriage makes sense to me as many of their users are already the same. And they’re extremely passionate, even fanatical, evangelists for the products.
on June 26, 2008 @ 9:00 am