A year ago, eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) shelled out a minimum of $2.6 billion for a super-fast growing VOIP company, Skype. eBay claimed that it was a synergistic fit, but Wall Street was skeptical. How does VOIP really improve auctions? Doesn't the power of eBay lie in automation?
International Herald had an excellent piece on the matter yesterday. So what have been the synergies so far? Not much. For example, you can put a "Skype Me" button on an auction item. But couldn't you have done this if eBay didn't buy Skype? eBay has used some of Skype's technology for PayPal, but its not clear how much this has helped.
Then again, Skype continues to be a strong standalone business. Since the eBay deal, Skype has doubled its number of registered users to 136 million and revenues are expected to increase from $60 million to nearly $200 million.
But Skype is facing headwinds from many competitors, such as Vonage, Google and even traditional telecom companies. Its future is anything but certain.
One way to differentiate itself from the competition is for Skype to find creative ways to integrate with eBay's huge auction business. So far, there is little evidence of that integration.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.
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