Nearly five years into a steady buying binge, eBay is looking bloated, unfocused and schizophrenic. eBay owns well over 100 subsidiaries, some of which were built in-house. But many are acquisitions that have been crammed into the parent company like those Tokyo train conductors at rush hour. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala
An interesting quick look at the assets of eBay and the confusing disconnect between some. The writer managed to do a good job depicting the results of indiscriminate acquisitions and a convoluted vision.
But corporate parent eBay, having had to write down $1.4bn already following its $2.6bn purchase of Skype back in the bubble-2.0 days of 2005, might see an opportunity here. A billion or two from the NSA for a backdoor into Skype might make the acquisition seem like a sensible idea.
The community more than ever has needed access, Obama’s new team has asked this program remain on a NTK Basis.
SKype has already been 50% written off as a loss and the site is clearly trying to move away from the Mom and Pop sellers trying to become another Amazon. Management there can get away with it until they burn up the rest of the cash.