Skype Out?

[mandy]

Disruptive innovations—the simple, cheap, accessible solutions that create new markets and transform existing ones—make attractive acquisition targets. eBay's struggles to make its acquisition of Skype work, however, show how moving quickly is a critical component of making disruptive acquisitions work...

Skype has had some successes over the past 24 months. Analysts estimate that Skype's revenues have grown from about $60 million in 2005 to somewhere north of $300 million this year. Skype has more than 200 million registered users (although analysts estimate only about 50 million users actually use Skype). Despite the positive developments, Skype's performance hasn't been enough to justify eBay's price tag.

What went wrong? Three of the assumptions we made when praising the acquisition don't seem to have panned out:

1. Skype has not created as compelling a standalone business model as eBay had hoped...

full article: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/con...topStories