EBay reported Q1 sales and earnings this afternoon that fell from the same quarter last year, but beat analysts’ estimates just the same. The company’s revenue totaled $2.02 billion, down 7.8 percent from $2.19 billion in 2008. Earnings were 39 cents per share. Analysts had been expecting worse, with estimates of 1.94 billion in revenue and earnings of 34 cents per share.
Describing its long-term financial outlook to analysts last week, eBay said it expects Skype to more than double its revenue to over $1 billion by 2011. Quite a claim to make about an Internet telephony business for which the company has taken some pretty nasty write-downs, a business that back in January eBay seemed to be looking to divest. But apparently, eBay sees quite a bit of promise in Skype’s new voice-over-IP service for businesses.
Google’s finally gone and done something with GrandCentral, the voice communications start-up the company acquired some 21 months ago. After migrating it over to its infrastructure and enhancing it with some new features, Google relaunched it this morning as Google Voice. And at first glance, the service is impressive.
“Skype is a great standalone business.” That’s how eBay CEO John Donahoe described the company’s anomalous Internet telephony unit during its recent earnings call, and that remark is being interpreted by some as a signal that the online auctioneer is looking to unload it. Frankly, that wouldn’t be a bad idea.
EBay may yet find a way to justify the astonishing $2.6 billion it paid for Skype. This morning, the Internet phone service launched an aggressive new international calling plan for U.S. customers. For flat fees of up to $9.95-a-month, Skype is offering unlimited calls to computers, landlines and some cellphones in 34 countries.
eBay (EBAY) may have finally figured out a way to get the sort of return it needs from its infamous $2.6 billion (+$1.4-billion writedown) misstep – the 2005 acquisition of Skype. Unload it. Word on the street has it that Google (GOOG) is considering a partnership with the the telephony service – and perhaps even [...]
Looks like eBay CEO Meg Whitman may make good after all on her pledge that no CEO should stay more than a decade. Whitman, the public face of eBay for the past 10 years, is reportedly preparing to retire. She has been delegating more tasks to deputies over the last few months and is expected to decide on her retirement in the coming weeks, The Wall Street Journal reports, quoting “people familiar with the matter.”
Some people have been critical of Skype, but I am very proud of the company’s growth. Very few companies can claim to match the growth trajectory Skype is on and continues to be on.”
Skype co-founder Niklas ‘NZennström’
It’s taken two years longer than it should have, but skepticism with which investors met eBay’s $2.6 billion-plus [...]
As business models go, this is surely one of the most ill-conceived to come across the decks in some time. This morning Pudding Media announced the beta of “The Pudding”–an advertising-supported Internet phone service that serves up contextually relevant ads to subscribers based on their conversations. How? Pudding’s voice recognition software eavesdrops on calls and selects ads based on what it hears.
Note: John Paczkowski is on vacation and won’t be writing or posting videos until he returns Monday, Aug. 27. To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. We’re calling it the Tech 10 and it appears here.
Note: John Paczkowski is on vacation and won’t be writing or posting videos until he returns Monday, Aug. 27.
To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. We’re calling it the Tech 10 and it will appear in Digital Daily.
Dell says it will [...]
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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