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Coffee_With_Bailey's

9:42 AM on 2 September, 2009

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Perhaps wasn't the silliest purchase on eBay's part - it can be a good move to diversify - as long as you manage the new direction with staff who have the understanding, vision and clout to drive things forwards and above all continue to innovate.

How else did a former one-man music-mail-order merchant end up running a hugely diverse business empire, including the incredibly ambitious Virgin Galactic outfit?

;-)

By your logic, Mr Branson would still be 'stuck' running Virgin Records / Virgin MegaStore - because they represent a natural fit - whereas Airlines, Radio Stations, Cinemas, Cola, Hotels, Hot Air Balloons, Cable TV and Fibre-Based Broadband are all just 'silly'.

eBay simply lacked the vision to do anything worthwhile with Skype - hopefully the new owners will push Skype in new directions and end the period of stagnation.

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Cub

11:22 AM on 2 September, 2009

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@Bailey's - I think the point is that VoIP, like most online markets, is difficult to make a profit from... And eBay are all about making profit at the expense of nice, useable websites with a decent customer service to back them up.

Airlines, Cinemas, Records, Hotels, Cola, and the rest are all proven, profitable business models.

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OldTimer

12:58 PM on 2 September, 2009

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If anything was silly about the purchase it was that the deal actually did not give eBay the rights to the underlying technology which was retained by the founders. Big slip up for the lawyers there!

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rav

6:06 PM on 2 September, 2009

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Reminds me of when VW bought Rolls Royce but BMW scooped up the rights to the actual name.

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Coffee_With_Bailey's

6:37 PM on 2 September, 2009

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@Cub - Space Tourism a proven business model too? Branson was really up against it in many ways over the past few decades - challenging the very business models you speak of. I'm not a fan or anything - but just seemed a good example to throw in regarding the merits of diversification done good.

Skype was originally a little project written in good old Delphi (object Pascal) - brings back fond memories!

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Cub

8:03 AM on 3 September, 2009

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@Bailey's - Hmmmnn... That's a good point :) Still, he's made his millions/billions now, he can afford to a bit more adventorous. If I had billions of pounds, damn right I'd be looking for a way to escape our atmosphere!

I don't think he's necessarily "challenged" the business models mentioned, other than actually offer a decent product with good customer service (Virgin Media is the exception here, obviously) have his businesses done anything hugely different? He's just done them well.

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Martin Daler

3:23 PM on 4 September, 2009

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Skype = hype. What does Skype do that ordinary SIP based VoIP does not? Surely Fring is the one to watch - ditch those Skhype shares now.

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