Skype, which is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft, is purchasing GroupMe, a year-old startup with 20 employees known for its popular cross-platform messaging system that works between smartphones.
Skype will reportedly pay $85 million for the company, which GigaOM suggests raises the question: “Why is Skype spending so much money on a relatively small company with a relatively small user base when compared to Skype?”
While Skype is a partner with Facebook, it has to be concerned that competition in voice and video communication is becoming intense with Facebook Messenger, Google Huddle and Apple iMessage. (GroupMe adds group messaging.)
Skype will still need to decide if it is a product for consumers or a collaboration tool for corporations.
ETCentric staffer Dennis Kuba raises another interesting question: “Is voice and video communications becoming commoditized?”
$85M is a lot to pay for the me-too answer to Google+ Huddles. But Microsoft is playing catch-up, and this is part of the shopping list of items they’ll need to get in the game.
Paula ParisiAugust 22, 2011 at 03:39pm
The whole Microsoft buys Skype (for $8.5 billion) didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. Feels a bit like a “NewsCorp/MySpace redux. This space is so fluid — hard to justify assigning a premium price to a company that feels somewhat tenuously positioned as a “category leader.” (But that’s a bit off topic, I guess!) Yes, voice and communications ARE being commoditized (just ask the phone companies!)
David WertheimerAugust 22, 2011 at 02:46pm
$85M is a lot to pay for the me-too answer to Google+ Huddles. But Microsoft is playing catch-up, and this is part of the shopping list of items they’ll need to get in the game.
Paula ParisiAugust 22, 2011 at 03:39pm
The whole Microsoft buys Skype (for $8.5 billion) didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. Feels a bit like a “NewsCorp/MySpace redux. This space is so fluid — hard to justify assigning a premium price to a company that feels somewhat tenuously positioned as a “category leader.” (But that’s a bit off topic, I guess!) Yes, voice and communications ARE being commoditized (just ask the phone companies!)
4 Comments
$85M is a lot to pay for the me-too answer to Google+ Huddles. But Microsoft is playing catch-up, and this is part of the shopping list of items they’ll need to get in the game.
The whole Microsoft buys Skype (for $8.5 billion) didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. Feels a bit like a “NewsCorp/MySpace redux. This space is so fluid — hard to justify assigning a premium price to a company that feels somewhat tenuously positioned as a “category leader.” (But that’s a bit off topic, I guess!) Yes, voice and communications ARE being commoditized (just ask the phone companies!)
$85M is a lot to pay for the me-too answer to Google+ Huddles. But Microsoft is playing catch-up, and this is part of the shopping list of items they’ll need to get in the game.
The whole Microsoft buys Skype (for $8.5 billion) didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. Feels a bit like a “NewsCorp/MySpace redux. This space is so fluid — hard to justify assigning a premium price to a company that feels somewhat tenuously positioned as a “category leader.” (But that’s a bit off topic, I guess!) Yes, voice and communications ARE being commoditized (just ask the phone companies!)
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