If anyone is after pitching eBay for some money for a pet project today’s the day to do it – eBay just cashed in on Skype as Microsoft announced that their deal to acquire Skype has completed.
Tony Bates, Skype CEO said that he’s “delighted to announce the deal with Microsoft has formally closed, and Skype is now a division of Microsoft”. I bet he’s not half as glad as some of the eBay execs who have at last got rid of the acquisition that eBay never knew what to do with.
Meg Whitman used to speak of “The Power of Three” and said “eBay intends to integrate Skype into its auction service to further facilitate communication between buyers and sellers on the site”. Of course that never happened, all we got were Skype buttons on listings for a while before they disappeared and were banned.
Still the good news is eBay have just got somewhere in the region of $2.55 billion for their remaining share in Skype, one wonders what they’ll spend it on. If you were John Donahoe what would do with the money from Skype?
36 Responses
Why are ebay interested in social networking and in any form of communications that are outside the control of eBay towers?
This only encourages “off ebay” sales so where is the business logic in spending any money at all in this area or establishing partnerships with the main players?
I would use the money to cover redundancy payments for what is so obviously a bloated organisation that needs streamlining. There is a sense that staff twiddle their thumbs coming up with initiatives for the sake of iniatives and change for changes sake. And following the cost cutting excercise eBay would then become a more stable site.
And then once staff numbers are reduced go about streamlining the whole platform getting rid of all the bloatware with the aim of reducing the number of mouse clicks required to list by half.
Linking item specifics to catagories so that there is a degree of autopopulation of these item specifics fields when a catagory is selected would be a start in this direction.
Might I make a suggestion to ebay and indeed to the executives of any Company in the land that is looking at a huge long term investment that will promote their business as well.
In the Steam Railway World we are desperate for New Steam Locomotives. I am certain that many will have heard of the LNER Class A1 Pacific 60163 “Tornado” that was built a year or two ago. The incredible amount of Column Inches of coverage in the Press, its enormous number of News items on TV and Radio etc. 60163 cost just £3million to build and will continue to attract coverage for the next 50 or 100 years.
Well “Tornado” is far too big and powerful for regular use on Heritage Railways. Its normal home is on Steam Specials running on the National Railway Network.
Now we need additional Locomotives to run on the Heritage Railways. There are a few under construction or planned such as “82045” a BR Standard 3 2-6-2 Tank. But also planned is a BR Standard Class 3 2-6-0 Tender. A Tender Locomotive is probably more fitting to carry a Nameplate than a tank engine.
The Class 3 Tender is actually mechanically very similar to the Class 3 Tank. So the components are the same. Also the Class 3(either version) is just about perfect for operating the various Heritage Railways in the UK. The first Class 3 Tender would be sponsored and for example named “ebay” and then as others were built they would be known as “ebay Class”.
Every year several million people visit the various Heritage Railways. Every year the visitors photograph and video the locomotives. They travel behind them. They love to go on the footplate Indeed the highlight of many visits is to be photographed with the locomotive behind them and especially with the nameplate in the photo.
Once named the locomotive would carry that name for ever more. Just try to calculate the cost of a large billboard carrying your advert for the next 50 or 100 years.
So if ebay is looking to invest say £2 million I would be happy to work with them to sponsor the building of a large Steam Locomotive.
As far as running costs are concerned. Once built it should be self supporting. It should be able to generate enough funds to pay for future maintenance and overhauls.
£2 million would make such a very small dent in the figure of $2.55 Billion yet in the long term it would do so much good for both ebay or indeed any other Company looking for a long term sponsorship.
Thinking about Sponsoring Sports teams where they are usually for a specified period and as soon as its over the players are seen wearing shirts with sticky tape over the previous sponsors names and logo. This will not happen with a Steam Locomotive. Once Named it will carry that name for ever.
Very good idea. An “eBay Class” of steam locomotive would be perfect marketing for the collectables side of the business and at a cost of £2 million for 100 years it has to be the marketing bargain of the centuary!
Every time the locos ran it would present a promotional opportunity.
One of the locos could be named “John Donahoe”
Ebay Derailed
ebay uncoupled
ebay at the wrong platform
Ebay on the buffers
wheels fell off ebay
ebay like a run away train
Red light for ebay
disaster signal for ebay
I’m interested to see who buys Yahoo, as I know Microsoft have renewed their interest and Alibaba have shown an interest as well. If Alibaba brought Yahoo that would open the west to Chinese brands.
What I would like to see is yahoo bought by someone with deep enough pockets and the will to bring back yahoo auctions and work it up to a viable competitor for ebay in the auctions market.
North, each of those could have an apposite opposite!
eBay steaming ahead
eBay on track
eBay on right lines
eBay shunts competitors into touch
eBay sees light at end of tunnel ……
etc.
But sadly Chris will need to dream on.
its a flippant comment in jest pointing out how ridiculous it would be for ebay to waste there efforts on a niche interest with little exposure when one trip round the m25 with an ebay logo van car/truck
would expose the brand to a much bigger audiance than a shed full of toot toos
There is another point about Sports Team Sponsorship. It tends to go to making highly paid Sports Stars even richer. In regard to building a Steam Locomotive every penny would go to actually building the locomotive. All the invoices would be available for inspection and none would go to making anybody rich.
I think I am having a one flew over the cuckoos nest moment ,I find myself blithering about steam
locos
the lunatics have taken over the asylum
I am off to get some therapy
I’m slowly losing the will to live.
I wonder if ebay would like to sponser my collection of toenail clippings
Collecting the toenail clippings has been hard. because of how the clippings fly around all over the place when clipped. with some support from ebay I could Organize them a lot easier.
I will place each individual clipping from my toenail collection for auction at e-bay.if I gain their support
Even for miseries such as northumbrian
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Microsoft said that Skype will be multiplaform forever, but will be also free for corporation use in the future? I am not sure…