| I don't see many reasons for Facebook to buy Skype: 1) Technology: Skype's core technology is their P2P technology. They have their own clients for PCs and mobiles. Facebook resides in the cloud, and it works from the browser. This is a huge difference on PCs/Macs, but less so on mobiles, where Facebook also has apps. 2) Price: At $3-4Bn Skype would be by far Facebook's biggest acquisition, as all the others have been under $100M. As they don't have the amount of cash that public companies like AAPL, GOOG or MSFT have (at least not yet), it's quite a big effort for them. There need be a lot of synergies to justify paying this kind of money. 3) Culture: Skype is older than Facebook, and has European roots. Facebook has so far made small acquisitions (more like acqhiring), they don't have any experience with integrating a big company like Skype. 4) Business model: Skype is going for the enterprise market (see the appointment of the new CEO last autumn), and selling subscriptions. Facebook is going for consumers, and selling ads. Overall, I think a better option for Skype would be an IPO, a telco acquisition, or maybe a Google acquisition. |