Comments on: Pop Quiz: If Skype=Hype, Then Facebook=?

By: WebGuild: Facebook Is Trapped

WebGuild: Facebook Is Trapped — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:11:13 +0000

[...] and you will see that Facebook is in bigger trouble than it appears. The company needs all the hype and buzz as a distraction from reality and creating a frenzy to rope investors before it becomes [...]

By: Facebook the Next Skype?

Facebook the Next Skype? — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:48:58 +0000

[...] chalk it up the same way writer Owen Thomas did when pointing to articles by Bernhard Warner and Kara Swisher: Great minds think alike. With the recent revelation that eBay paid too much for Skype (only by $1 [...]

By: Steve “Grumpy Old Man” Ballmer Insults Those Crazy Kids at Facebook | BoomTown | Kara Swisher | AllThingsD

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:46:00 +0000

[...] I wrote yesterday that those talks were running hot and cold, but given his interview published yesterday in the Times of London, I would say things are a bit frostier than that. [...]

By: Is Steve Ballmer really smart or really dumb? « Alexander van Elsas’s Weblog on new media & technologies and their effect on social behavior

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 06:37:56 +0000

[...] article son the possible investment of Microsoft in Facebook, the latest, called “PopQuiz:Skype = Hype, then Facebook=?” I agree that investing $500 million in Facebook would be way over the top. But, as I [...]

By: John Lin

John Lin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 04:01:35 +0000

As previously noted by others in the comments, Skype comes in the long line of over-hyped and thus over-paid acquisitions that leads to buyer’s remorse.

Buying Skype in theory was not a bad move, but OVERPAYING was. Of course, the Skype co-founders want to sell at the highest price, so having eBay outbid others to the tune of billions is in their own self best interest.

By: Ivan Pope

Ivan Pope — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 23:32:37 +0000

Yeah, or a line to this:

In April 1999, Broadcast.com was acquired by Yahoo! for $5.7 billion in stock and became Yahoo! Broadcast Solutions. Over the next few years Yahoo! split the services previously offered by Broadcast.com into separate services, Yahoo! Launchcast for music and Yahoo! Platinum for video entertainment. Yahoo! Platinum has since been discontinued, its functionality being offered as part of two pay services, AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet and Yahoo! Plus.

As of 2006, neither broadcast.com nor broadcast.yahoo.com are distinct web addresses; both simply redirect to yahoo.com.

or this:

Excite@Home today said it would acquire popular online greeting card site Blue Mountain Arts for about $780 million in cash and stock, hoping to accelerate the adoption of its broadband strategy.
Blue Mountain is the 14th most-trafficked Web property, according to research firm Media Metrix. It also ranks third among e-commerce sites, behind Amazon.com and eBay. With the holiday season just around the corner, Excite@Home said it would make an additional payment of up to $270 million in stock contingent upon Blue Mountain reaching traffic and other performances goals.

The two companies said the demographics of Blue Mountain users are consistent with those of people who subscribe to residential broadband services, adding that broadband is ideal for Blue Mountain’s interactive greeting cards and e-commerce offerings. The companies said their users tend to be older, more experienced, and heavy home Net users.

By: Mike Rowland

Mike Rowland — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:08:20 +0000

Dennis Berman’s article in the WSJ was spot on (For Facebook, GeoCities Offers a Cautionary Tale — 9/25/07, page C1 of the WSJ).

As we’ve been telling our clients who want to get the gold from social networks, for every Facebook there is a GeoCities…we think the whole social networking concept has been googlized and that new entrants are going to throw their good money after a bad idea.. who needs social networks of wine drinkers or stand up comedians?

Could this be a Rupert Murdoch plan to have the WSJ and associated blogs become the little rain clouds on Facebook? Naw, that’s way too much of a conspiracy theory for me.

Facebook is an excellent site. I only hope that they stay independent. Let the others throw their money away, Facebook can stay independent and relevant if it remains focused on its core expanding audience and not the money.

By: Microsoft fiddles while Facebook burns - - mathewingram.com/work

Microsoft fiddles while Facebook burns - - mathewingram.com/work — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:10:18 +0000

[...] the end, I think Kara Swisher at All Things D probably has the right read on the situation: Facebook is likely to take some money, at a handsome valuation, but remain [...]

By: Kara Swisher has got it right - Facebook is a non-starter « Aid Worker Daily

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:38:31 +0000

[...] 2nd, 2007 · No Comments Check out Kara’s post over at AllThingsD here. $10 billion for Facebook? I opened a Facebook account several weeks ago which was about 10 years [...]

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:39:02 +0000

My sense is the little rain cloud hovering over Facebook could start to grow. For whatever reason, I’m getting the feeling Facebook has jumped the shark – maybe it’s the crazy valuations now being thrown around, or maybe it’s a sense that Facebook’s 15 minutes of fame is close to being over. Whatever it is, Facebook doesn’t seem to be that red-hot – at least to me.

By: Mark Evans - Skype Should Do An IPO Soon

Mark Evans - Skype Should Do An IPO Soon — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:34:46 +0000

[...] Kara Swisher makes some excellent points about how eBay failed to leverage Skype’s exploding popularity. [...]