Ever wondered how much free phone calls are worth? Wonder no more. E-Bay is going to pay around $4.1 Billion for Skype. From an article carried on ZD Net “The auctioneer said it plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock for the Web communications company. It would make a further payout of up to $1.5 billion by 2008 or 2009 if financial targets are met, giving the deal a total value of up to $4.1 billion, executives of the two companies said.”
That’s not bad money for a company that expects to make $60 million this year. But the growth path it’s on is impressive. Skype has added 54 million users to it’s service in just 2 years. This is going to be an interesting industry to track as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft make their own entry into Skype’s playground.
Free phone calls are worth a lot of money
Also check out http://www.jajah.com – it claims to be much quicker than Skype – can’t wait for the Mac version!
I spent my first Skype dollars recently – phoning home (to cellphones!) in SA from China. I could hear the people on the other end of the line clearly – but they couldn’t hear me at all – except for the occasional word. Hopefully Jajah is better… 🙂 The minimum you can buy on Skype is 10 Euros and they must all be spent within 6 months. Maybe I’ll spend them on local calls…