Ongoing discussion on the net today about News Corporation taking a look at buying Skype. ZDNET's Russell Shaw thinks a major telco might be a better bet. I suppose it all comes down to price. Shaw's straw-man is Deutsche Telekom. Well they have the track record but once bitten etc. In a sense DT was the first incumbent to break ranks, with other incumbents, when it bought into Vocaltec way back in 1997. But with Vocaltec hemorrhaging cash most years since and seemingly on its last legs I wonder how DT views that investment now. DT spent $48 million buying 21% of Vocaltec and the company lost $75 million between 2000 and 2004. In the last week or so it threw in another $1 million.
For mine a content company makes more sense than a telco. Rupert Murdoch is not interested in telecoms per se (especially since his OneTel experience) but a portal drawcard and potential advertising platform for his content rich range of companies. His speech earlier this year signaled his intention to get into the Internet in way which capitalises on the growth of online advertising. Today, Skype represents 40 million sets of eyeballs with geographic information (at least from what they said they signed up) and potentially other information attached to Skype use. Not a bad way to target adds. But according to Rupert M. it wasn't the price but that Skype's owners were not selling. The LA Times quotes him as saying "We've had conversations, but the founders do not want to sell," Murdoch said, calling the company "not the only alternative." And he is cashed up to keep looking.
Meanwhile Yahoo has launched its VoIP service. Yawn! Now if it had YahoOUT with calls to PSTN and you could call other IMs and so forth. PC to PC VoIP -- just what Vocaltec could do ten years ago.
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