Possible Google-Skype Acquisition
January 18, 2008
In recent weeks, a certain rumor has been circulating in the blogosphere. Bloggers are talking about Google’s intention to acquire the world’s leading online VoIP service, Skype. Rumors started with the UK’s well-respected Guardian newspaper on Monday, and even though they do not have a solid basis they continue spreading.
“Currently in favor around London’s webbist community is the rumor that Google has been in negotiations to buy Skype,” wrote Jemima Kiss, a blogger with the Guardian. “Google bases all of its mobile projects in London, so this is the fitting place for such a rumor.”
Skype and Google also have some shared interests with regard to an upcoming 700-MHz airwaves auction in the U.S., where both companies have pressured regulators to make existing wireless carriers “open up” their networks.
A Google acquisition of Skype “makes sense on a number of levels, particularly because it fits with Google’s ambitions for disrupting the mobile industry through its new open mobile phone development platform Android,” Kiss wrote, noting that a such a deal might also be attractive to eBay, “which was recently forced to admit that it had paid too much for Skype.”
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