Top Items:
BBC:
eBay to buy Skype in $2.6bn deal — Online auction site eBay has agreed to buy internet telephone company Skype Technologies in a $2.6bn (£1.4bn) deal. — eBay said it would pay half the amount in cash and the other half in stocks to create "an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine".
Discussion:
TechSpot, Aqute Market Research, Associated Press, Alex Barnett blog and The Silent Penguin
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Ross Mayfield / Ross Mayfield's Weblog:
The Simple Reason eBay bought Skype — In two hours, eBay is holding a conference call about buying Skype. I'm visiting the Skype guys in Tallinn a couple of hours later. Lot's of folks are scratching their heads. I have no inside information, nor really want it, but can offer …
Anne Broache / CNET.com:
eBay to nab Skype for $2.6 billion — update eBay plans to buy Net telephone provider Skype in a move aimed at boosting its sales volumes and supplying seamless voice communications to its consumers. — Company executives said Monday that eBay plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion …
Andy Abramson / VoIP Watch:
eBay Buys Skype — The last few days were rather quiet on the Skype Hype front. It seems my first gut reaction about Skype Was right and only over thinking caused a shift. I still view the Skype team as master marketers who played the game to the fullest and have won with eBay making the acquisition.
Rob Hof / TechBeat:
Why eBay Is Buying Skype — Here's my quick take, below, an edited version of which will appear in a few hours at businessweek.com. CEO Meg Whitman & Co. gave an impassioned rationale for the deal. I can certainly see that if Skype meets its ambitious goals, the deal could pay off eventually.
Jeff / The Jeff Pulver Blog:
End of an Era? eBay to purchase Skype — So it turns out that the rumors late last week were true. eBay is going to purchase Skype. — But one thing the folks at eBay forgot about, is that while money can buy many things, as the Beatles once said, "Money can't buy you love."
Eric Auchard / Reuters:EBay to buy Skype in deal worth $4.1 bln - source
Discussion:
Jon Arnold's Blog
Staci / PaidContent.org:EBay-Skype: PowerPoint Pitch : EBay's explanation/sales pitch …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Times of London:
New legal threat to Google over GMail — Google, the internet search engine, is facing a renewed threat of legal action from a company that claims to own the intellectual property rights to its GMail e-mail service. — Independent International Investment Research, a British company …
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Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Note to Mary Jo: Sparkle is no Flash killer — Mary Jo Foley gives her predictions of what's coming at the PDC: More Developers, More Developers, More Developers! — One thing I gotta correct. I used to think that Sparkle was a Flash killer. Hey, that was good hype cause that team hired …
Discussion:
JD on MX
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Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Announcing Memorandum to track Tech and Politics/News blogs — Here's some very cool non-Microsoft news that I'm proud to announce (I am the first site to report this news). — I'm on the phone with Gabe Rivera, emperor of Memeorandum. He is, at this very moment, turning on major …
extremetech.com:
Part I: 64-bit vs. 32-bit Windows — Windows XP Professional x64 edition is clearly not a mainstream product. For example, though you can order Dell Dimension XPS models with XP X64 installed, Dell gives you this rather dire warning when you try to buy a system with the OS installed:
Discussion:
TechSpot
CNET.com:
Oracle to swallow Siebel for $5.8 billion — update Software maker Oracle said Monday it will acquire rival Siebel Systems in a deal worth $5.8 billion, marking the second major competitor the company has targeted since mid-2004. — Oracle executives said the mega-deal is intended as a …
Gizmodo, The Gadget blog:
Frog Design Mind — [Eds. Note: Even if you have never heard of frog design, you are undoubtedly familiar with the company's enormously influential design work—the Sony Trinitron TV, Logitech's QuickCam Fusion, AT&T's first digital answering machine, the Apple IIC and NeXT Box.
Discussion:
The Blackfriars Blog
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
In the academe — A personal announcement: I've accepted an appointment to join the faculty of the new graduate school of journalism at the City University of New York, heading up the new media program. — There's a brief story about this in The Times here with a good punch line for a lead: