Friday, October 21, 2005

eBay puzzle

Who can help me tie together these eBay snippets:
  • On October 14 the Skype deal closed and eBay paid the initial $1.3 bn (and 33m shares).
  • The corporate jet was sold for $28.3m (see page 11 of the Q3 earnings release). They threw this at the Q3 capex budget.
  • CFO Rajiv Dutta transitions to Skype (see page 1 of the same release).
  • CEO Meg Whitman unsuccesfully interviewed at Disney for the CEO post now given to Bob Iger.
  • EBay is to pay a maximum earn-out to the Skype sellers worth $1.4 bn in cash or stock (at eBay's discretion).
  • EBay understands that phone calls (VoIP) will be free within 3-6 years.

To be sure, I find it hard to see logic in the (price of the) Skype deal, except when you see it as a way to diversify, which Ray Conley explains very well.


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