Quote of the day: Skype, hype--bubble?
Oracle's acquisition of software rival Siebel makes sense. Made sense for eBay to buy PayPal. But eBay's purchase of VoIP firm Skype?
Apparently, the in thing again for tech companies is to drop a few billion dollars to buy other tech companies. On a day when Oracle ponied up $5.8 billion for software rival Siebel Systems, auction giant eBay also dug deep and came up with $2.6 billion for VoIP darling Skype. While the Oracle-Siebel deal is a marriage of like-minded souls, the eBay-Skype engagement had many scratching their heads. "It reminds me of the days of the Internet bubble," said Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Forrester Research. "Who buys a company for $2.6 billion anymore that has a miniscule revenue stream?"
To read the full account of the Skype purchase, click here.