Sprawling eBay Stumbles Upon Another Unrelated Acquisition

I like eBay, and I like Stumble Upon, but Nick Denton nails it:

The online auctions monopoly is set to make another random web acquisition... Om Malik came up with a heroic explanation of the logic of the combination, involving integration of Stumble Upon with Ebay's Skype internet telephone service. But we prefer a simpler interpretation: Ebay has more money, from its outrageous monopoly on online collectibles and other auctions, than sense.

Assuming Om isn't completely hallucinating, another explanation might be: eBay is still trying to justify/save its un-related Skype acquisition...by buying another un-related company.  It's almost as though eBay's successful PayPal acquisition (which was actually closely related to the company's core business) persuaded it that buying any fast-growing companies with high margins and network effects would be a good idea.

The frustrating part, for us becalmed eBay shareholders, is that Skype would have a wonderful future--if eBay weren't intent on turning it into a social networking site.  Perhaps one of these days the company will come to its senses and sell Skype to Yahoo, Microsoft, or another company that is actually in the online communications business--and then refocus on its hurting commerce cash cow.

Comments

[King Troll]

I hate Ebay. They kicked me off after have 25,000 feedbacks and being a Platinum seller. All because competitors were complaining about various issues. Fuckers at Ebay dont even give a shit.

[Ben Profane]

Om's been smoking pot since the mid 90s. Any more and he'll be on par with Dvorak or Cringely. I bet his retard commenters are also having a fiesta with 'theories' on this one.

[Mehnaz]

I have reading up on eBay's moves. Sramana Mitra writes a series of articles on eBay's acquisitions. Read more in her blog eBay’s Forays Into Media.