Posts Tagged ‘Skype’
Yahoo Messenger 10 beta: A legitimate Skype rival?
September 1st, 2009 | 
Author: 
It seems like just yesterday that Yahoo’s Messenger team rolled out version 9 (it was a little less than a year ago, in fact.) The upgrade was so dramatic and overdue that it’s a little surprising Yahoo has already tweaked its chat client, now parading Yahoo Messenger 10 beta to beta testers and curious chatters. We’re glad they did. Even though the changes may not please everyone uniformly, nor should they incite ire. The features build off Yahoo Messenger 9 and emphasize social networking and improved video calling.
You’ll be able to learn more about the social networking aspects from the gallery above. This post will focus on the video features.
VoIP and PC-to-landline calls aren’t new to Yahoo Messenger, but the icon that calls out video chats is. Most of the major IM clients support voice-over-Internet calls with Web cams. It is Yahoo’s attention to video quality makes this build a closer competitor to Skype for Windows, which is a VoIP client first, enriched by chatting, file sharing, emoticons, and games. Yahoo Messenger (and Windows Live Messenger, etc. for that matter,) are chat apps at the core that have layered on other P2P features.
Skype is still ahead in terms of total features, like screen sharing, its most recent contribution to the VoIP community. However, the Web chatting experience was good enough on Yahoo Messenger 10 beta in our tests that we might prefer to use it to start a casual video call if the app is already running, rather than fire up Skype. Admittedly, our tests were limited by the callers’ proximity to each other, fast data connections, and strong computing configurations. We’ll need to keep up the calling with a cross-section of international users to get a more accurate litmus. Since the improved video calling only works with other Yahoo Messenger 10 beta users, we may have to wait for further adoption to test these theories.
http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-10322729-12.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Report: eBay has deal to sell Skype
eBay is expected to announce Tuesday that it has reached a deal to sell its Internet telephone service, Skype, to a group of private investors, The New York Times reported late Monday.
The investment group will reportedly include Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital group launched in July by Marc Andreessen, the founder of Netscape and co-founder of Opsware, and Ben Horowitz, also co-founder of Opsware. A price was not revealed, but previous reports put eBay’s asking price for Skype at about $2 billion.
eBay representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Online auction giant eBay acquired Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005 with the plans to offer customers the ability to discuss their transactions in real-time. But over the course of the four years, eBay apparently found that its acquisition failed to provide the synergies it sought.
In 2007, eBay said it would take a $900 million so-called impairment write-down against the value of Skype, meaning that eBay had been forced to reassess the value of the Internet telephony company relative to its overall business. By recording a charge, the company essentially announced it had taken a loss on its original investment.
When eBay announced John Donahoe as its new CEO in 2008, Donahoe indicated that the company would take a year to evaluate the future of its online phone and video-conferencing service.
In April, eBay announced plans to spin off Skype, with an IPO in the first half of next year.
Meanwhile, reports surfaced that Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis were interested in repurchasing the company, with the aid of private equity firms KKR, Warburg Pincus, Elevation Partners, and Providence.
Source : http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10322833-94.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Posted in Communication, eBay, Internet, Tech | 
Tags: eBay, Skype, The New York Times | 
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