Interesting! Dutta at one point said that Skype deal will bring greater value than PayPal. Not a good sign when someone moves away in few months.

Does the track-back URL work? It seems that I cannot trackback my post to your blog...

Ebay has been a market leader for a while and with strong elements like Paypal and Skype in its portfolio it is definitely the target for attack from competitors so I am not too taken aback by the moves from Google and the current executive suffle. This was bound to happen sometime or the other.
The important thing is how will the new exec's hold the fort first and then carve out strategies to build it with a stronger base. Competition is the fact of life and I would expect Dutta to be aware of it and be planning right as I type this email. Business as usual from my point of view.

SG

The skype deal was the beginning of the appearant grasping for straws by ebay management. 2.6 billions of dollars for a VOIP company??? For something having to do with audio auctions?? Are they on crack? Do their customers even want audio auctions?

If it were audio auctions, they didn't need to pay the premium for Skype's customers they could have LICENSED technology for audio auctions.

They need to acquire something like Lending Tree which has an auction like component or other financial services ideas or even Sothebys/Christies not being a phone company. Quite frankly it would have made more sense to buy a cell phone carrier than Skype.

Management cleary doesn't have a clue about how to maintain their traditional business' sales growth or how to use an acquisition strategy.