This just makes no sense to me. eBay buying Skype? They couldn't be more different companies and I see no way in which this benefits eBay. The article mentions that buyers and sellers could talk directly, which I guess would work, but they could do that already if they both had Skype or Yahoo or MSN or Google Talk installed. It also says that it could pave the way for live auctions, but seriously, is that worth $2.6bn? For $2.6bn, they could have easily created their own software a la Google Talk for live auctions. It's obvious they're paying the big bucks for the Skype userbase, but what are they going to do with that? Everyone already knows about eBay, so you're not going to be able to advertise to these people on Skype and convince them to shop at eBay - especially since most Skype users are already technologically savvy and already buy stuff on eBay most likely.

To me, it's just a waste of money and I'm curious to see how eBay will profit from Skype. Personally, I think it's a huge mistake as there's so many other directions eBay could move in - but VoIP?

URL: BBC NEWS | Business | eBay to buy Skype in $2.6bn deal