Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#41

Post by kin » Thu, May 05, 2011, 7:35 AM UTC

the first thing i thought of was video chat integration into facebook chat exactly the same way google video chat is integrated into gchat. from there, they could monetize on paid group chats, calls to numbers since fb's new messaging is tied to mobile, etc.

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#42

Post by horatiumocian » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:02 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #28

Andreessen was an investor in Qik. Andreessen did a huge deal to buy Skype. Andreessen is an investor in Facebook AND on the board. He sold Qik to Skype for $100M and now he's going to sell Skype to Facebook for billions? "No conflict, no interest" indeed.

I am not sure that Marc Andreessen has so much influence at Facebook. He has one of the 3 board seats that are controlled by Zuckerberg. And Skype would be Facebook's biggest acquisition so far, so it wouldn't be easy for him to convince Zuckerberg to do it.

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#43

Post by horatiumocian » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:04 AM UTC

sahaj wrote: post #34

Does Facebook have $3-4B in cash? I didn't think they had that much money. And even if they do, they wouldn't have much left after the deal to move other big plans forward. I guess if they go public first, then it could happen.

Facebook may make $2B in profits this year. So I think they could come up with this cash. Also, they can give some of this amount in stock.

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#44

Post by horatiumocian » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:18 AM UTC

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.

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#45

Post by nametoremember » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:37 AM UTC

jerf wrote: post #23

calebmpeterson wrote: post #6

In the event of this actually happening, what are some alternatives to Skype's video chat?

Person-to-person video chat is a commodity. If there's a problem it is that there are too many solutions.

Yep. It seems Skype just won on brand name.

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#46

Post by hexley » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:38 AM UTC

smallhands wrote: post #16

I know this is off the topic.any body knows a skype like program that runs on lan only thanks

iChat/w Bonjour

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#47

Post by nametoremember » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:39 AM UTC

horatiumocian wrote: post #43

sahaj wrote: post #34

Does Facebook have $3-4B in cash? I didn't think they had that much money. And even if they do, they wouldn't have much left after the deal to move other big plans forward. I guess if they go public first, then it could happen.

Facebook may make $2B in profits this year. So I think they could come up with this cash. Also, they can give some of this amount in stock.

In profit? Source? (Not saying you're wrong - I just didn't know and would like to read about it)

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#48

Post by zackattack » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:44 AM UTC

calebmpeterson wrote: post #11

beedogs wrote: post #9

beedogs considering no longer using Skype.

if FB buys skype I'm out

fear of centralized access to personal information? is there a _secure_ easy voip solution ?

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#49

Post by horatiumocian » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:46 AM UTC

nametoremember wrote: post #47

horatiumocian wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook may make $2B in profits this year. So I think they could come up with this cash. Also, they can give some of this amount in stock.

In profit? Source? (Not saying you're wrong - I just didn't know and would like to read about it)

Here it is: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-03/facebook-is-said-to...

To be more precise, it's $2B in EBITDA, not net profit.

Re: Facebook considering $3-4Bn buyout of Skype

#50

Post by nametoremember » Thu, May 05, 2011, 8:46 AM UTC

inoop wrote: post #25

The Skype app on Android is really only barely functional, and what is more, the total lack of support or interest in fixing bugs from their side is almost comical. A couple of months ago I fixed a problem where the sound was coming out of the back speaker rather than the earpiece, a problem that seems to affect many people. I located the problem and fixed it using baksmali/smali. I then opened a ticket on their publ…

Facebook updated their Android app which meant if you checked messages it would crash. It was fixed but the app still stalls for me.