Synergy schmynergy
Yesterday we brought you the news that giant car-boot sale website eBay was reversing an acquisition it made two years ago by selling StumbleUpon back to its founders.
This news revived speculation that eBay was feeling at a similar loss about what to do with Internet telephony pioneer Skype, which it bought for a couple of billion Euros back in 2005.
We don't know if eBay offered Skype back to its founders or not, but even if it did they would have stuggled to raise anywhere near that much in the current credit climate. Instead, eBay has moved to quiet speculation by announcing plans to spin-off Skype in an initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of next year.
"Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum, but it's clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal," said eBay's president and CEO, John Donahoe.
Let's just remind ourselves what was said by previous CEO Meg Whitman at the time of the Skype acquisition: "Communications is at the heart of ecommerce and community," she said. "By combining the two leading ecommerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with the leader in Internet voice communications, we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the Net."
In retrospect it looks like people never felt the need to have a big chat when they were just buying a second-hand DVD. This serves as a further indictment of Whitman's ability to spot a synergy and confirms that Donahoe, who took over as CEO last year, will refocus on eBay's core business.