Year: 2005

eBay acquires Skype

Post ImageI posted about the rumored deal on Thursday of a marriage between eBay and Skype. Today, the two companies announced that eBay would purchase Skype for $2.6 billion dollars:

Company executives said Monday that eBay plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock to the global communications company. It has agreed to hand over up to an extra $1.5 billion, for a total payout of more than $4 billion, if Skype meets certain financial targets by 2008, according to a presentation to investors on Monday morning.

As I said previously, I am not sure how smart this was for eBay. Surely purchasing PayPal back in 2002 made a lot of sense, and they immediately saw a return on investment. And it was probably a rather large return, if I had to guess. Skype doesn’t make a lot of money, and might not ever make that much money.

If all the deal turns out to be is a communications network for eBayers, it’ll be pretty clear that it was a waste of money. eBay could probably have built their own system for far less. Who knows though, it might turn out to be a very wise investment. Maybe Meg Whitman knows something the rest of us don’t. Time will tell.

You can read the official press release here.

Read: CNET News.com

Notes for 9/11/2005

Last night I was finishing up a big project that needed to be done for early this morning, so I didn’t get a chance to post my weekly catchup entry! So here it is, slightly late (hopefully this doesn’t become a habit):

  • My brother Tom has arrived in Edmonton for the year. Now to get him blogging! He got a new cell phone at Bell that features music when dialing. That is, if you call him, you don’t hear ringing but instead music. Not sure if I like it yet.
  • School is now in full swing. Kind of sad.
  • Are the rumors that eBay is going to buy Skype true? Looks that way. What about Google buying Reuters?
  • Four years ago terrorists struck against the United States. Check out The September 11 Digital Archive for more.
  • So far, an advantage to having classes every day is that I can create a better schedule.
  • I finished reading Edwin Black’s IBM and the Holocaust this week. Absolutely fascinating book, though a bit hard to read in places. I’ll have to write up a review one of these days.

Four Years Later

Hard to believe it has been four years already since the attacks of September 11th, 2001. There’s a great article at Wikipedia on what happened on the day, and since then. It must be said that it’s disappointing to realize that we haven’t learned that much in the last four years. We haven’t learned to be better prepared for a disaster, as Hurricane Katrina has shown. I wonder when things will change? Do we really have to wait until 2008?

Always On Wireless

Post ImageWhat’s my mantra? Wireless Everywhere! I look forward to the day when wireless is like oxygen; everywhere you go, it’s there. So it always makes me smile when I find an article that really nails the vision:

“If you ask someone what the (return on investment) on plumbing is, they couldn’t tell you, because it’s just part of what the building needs to survive,” Ed Cantwell, president and CEO of InnerWireless says. “Wireless is like that. People can debate if wireless is a utility, but I contend that it already is just like heating and cooling, lights, plumbing and electricity.”

I think that’s an excellent step, treating wireless access like water and having buildings designed with that in mind. That’s what happened at the University of Chicago hospital:

The pediatric hospital’s new wireless infrastructure aggregates two-way radio, public-safety radio, paging, Wi-Fi and cellular networks into one system that runs throughout the building, augmenting signals with antennas spread around each of its six floors.

There’s a whole host of startups providing such infrastructure. If I were to build a building, you can bet that an integrated wireless utility would be part of the specifications.

Read: CNET News.com

Office 12 Feature Request!

Post ImageAccording to Scoble, there’s a ton of cool stuff that will be announced at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) next week. One of the new applications that we should find out a lot more about is Office 12, the successor to Office 2003.

I haven’t been paying attention to Office development at all lately, as it’s just really outside the day-to-day stuff for me. Working in Word 2003 this afternoon though caused me to think of something I want to see in Office 12: every single Office application should have OneNote style “saving”. If I am working on a document in Word, I shouldn’t have to click save, or have the application attempt to auto-save every now and then. It should work exactly like OneNote! As soon as you type it, it’s saved.

Also, Visual Studio Tools for Office should be extended to every application in the family, not just Word and Excel! It will be interesting to see what is announced next week.

Read: Microsoft Office

Back to School: Part 2

Today was my last “first class” for this semester. I had CMPUT 410 this morning, which is “Web Based Information Systems”. Here’s the description and objectives from the CS site:

Overview of Web technologies and applications. This course is project based and addresses issues such as web-based applications and databases design and implementation, XML data exchange and modeling, application component integration over the Web, security mechanisms, and Web Mining for intelligent web-based applications.

Expertise and skills in web technologies are very sought for in the current market place. This course is intended to present the students with the basic knowledge needed for professional web information systems development. This course will also introduce current advanced technologies used for web-application development.

So basically, stuff I do on an almost daily basis. The description the professor gave of DNS this morning wasn’t what I would consider “extensive”, so I think I’ll be okay in this class. It fulfills a requirement at least. One nice thing about Computing Sciences courses is that almost everything is online, including the outline, notes, assignments, solutions, exams, etc. If only all courses could be so forward-thinking!

After class I met Megan in CAB and we hightailed it over to the PowerPlant for a pint and pound of fries. Just like old times! And it really was too, as the service in the PowerPlant remains extremely slow, though our server was at least friendly this time. And Megan is right, the place smelled better when they allowed smoking inside. The funny thing about this year is I have this incredible urge to avoid CAB at all costs. Having spent every day there for the last four years must have made me hate the place, I don’t know.

We’re a long way from my vision of wireless everywhere. I really wish the University would just spend the money to blanket the entire campus with wireless access. I can’t get a connection in any of my classes this semester (as my CMPUT class is, very oddly, in the Civil Engineering building). For a list of buildings with wireless and wired access, check out Academic ICT (formerly CNS (not sure I like the name change)).

2005 Vancouver Fringe Festival

Post ImageI quite enjoyed the Edmonton Fringe Festival this summer, and I am looking forward to next years. We’re not the only city with a Fringe though, and Darren is blogging this year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival:

Last night I went to the Fringe Preview Gala. Not only did I see excerpts from a bunch of shows, but I also grilled artists and staff alike for their favourites. Here’s a quick run-down of what looks promising…

If you’re in Vancouver or you’re going to be, you should check it out! You can see Darren’s list of promising shows (as well as some more in the comments) here.

Read: Vancouver Fringe

eBay+Skype – What about Amazon?

Post ImageThe big story today in the world of technology (or M&A, depending on how you look at it), originally reported in the Wall Street Journal, is that eBay is in talks to buy Skype for, get this, $3 to $5 billion (yes billion). Seems like anything but a match made in heaven to me. Mark Evans agrees:

eBay purchasing online auctions houses overseas makes sense as do moves into new areas such as online rental listings. But spending $3-billion to buy Skype puzzles me. If anyone can explain eBay’s strategic thinking, I’m open to be educated. For investors, eBay’s interest in Skype could be an alarming indication management is concerned about the growth prospects for the auction business, which may explain why eBay shares have fallen today.

Skhype!

Skype has become quite the media whore as of late, with rumored suitors in the last couple months including Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, News Corporation, and InterActive. Yahoo, Microsoft and Google balked at the purchase price, no doubt because they could build their own competitor for far less. Talks with the other two didn’t amount to anything.

Skype is horribly over-priced:

Om Malik has a post citing a Swedish newspaper that suggests Skype has annual sales of about $70 million. Doing a little quick math suggests a $2-billion to $3-billion purchase would give Skype a price to revenue multiple of 30 to 45 times.

And even more importantly, I can’t see how Skype and eBay result in any synergies. They are completely different businesses, and I don’t think eBay needs a communication network to grow. Furthermore, adding Skype to it’s portfolio may only create new headaches for eBay, who had to jump through hoops at times to get PayPal where it is today. Dealing with financial regulators is one thing; dealing with communications regulators is quite another.

What about Amazon.com?

So the question then, is what does Amazon.com do if the rumored eBay-Skype marriage turns out to be true? Surely there’d be some pressure on them to make a move, as their primary competitor these days is most definitely eBay.

One scenario: partner up with Google in a real hurry. eBay would have both PayPal and Skype under it’s wing, so it might make sense for Amazon.com to try and get in bed with Google and it’s Google Talk and Google Wallet (rumored) services. The other advantage for Amazon in this scenario is that it could happen very quickly, as opposed to building their own systems. On the other hand, Google is a competitor of Amazon’s already with Froogle and Amazon’s A9.

Another scenario would have Amazon build their own communications system, perhaps using Jabber. I don’t think Amazon sees itself as a development company so it would be a bit out of character, but if Google can do it, why not Amazon right? This scenario would depend very heavily on whether Amazon sees any advantage to having such a communications system. I would imagine they are scratching their heads a little right now about eBay and Skype too.

Any other ideas? It will be interesting to watch this one unfold!

Agassi makes major comeback

Post ImageI’m not really all that into tennis. I like Maria Sharapova, but probably not just because she’s a great player. I also find it interesting when the Williams sisters play each other. As far as the men are concerned, I don’t really pay attention, but I do like Andre Agassi. I only saw two sets of last night’s US Open match between Blake and Agassi (one he lost, one he won), but I did catch the highlights later on. And what a match it was! From the official site:

Champions like Agassi specialize in finding a way back into seemingly impossible matches, and once into the fourth, he seemed to gain confidence and move a lot better against a flagging Blake. Agassi came through to go up an early break. It seemed that the ball had moved, quite literally, into Agassi’s court. The previously stoic Blake let loose a roar of frustration as he lost his serve and the rejuvenated veteran went on to break to send the match into a fifth set that would have seemed improbable just half an hour before.

Pretty amazing stuff, especially for Agassi who is the oldest player in the tournament. It’s also interesting to note that this is his 20th consecutive US Open.

It seems I wasn’t the only one who missed part of the match though, as JD Lasica explains:

In the fifth set of the hugely anticipated Andre Agassi-James Blake tennis match at the U.S. Open, with Agassi leading Blake 2 games to 1, USA Network announced it would be cutting away to regular programming “due to contractual obligations.” What was so important? A rerun of “Law & Order: SVU.”

I have to say, I completely agree with JD:

Whoever made this decision, or whoever negotiated that no-exceptions contract, needs to be fired. Seriously.

For more on the match, check out the recap on ESPN.

Back to School

Post ImageAs the years have gone by, I have found that I look forward to the first day of school less and less. This year was no different, as I almost didn’t go back. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but feel a little excited this morning as I made my way to my first class. The usual stuff goes through your mind – this is going to be interesting, I’m going to keep up on my readings, I’m never going to skip class, etc. It never works out that way, but there’s no harm in trying right?

My first class today was SOC 300, or “Principles of Sociology”; clearly, one of my electives. There are many things about this class that made me feel old. First, SOC 300 is the same as SOC 100, but only first and second year students can take SOC 100. Second, the majority of the class (judging by the hands that were raised) are third year students, not fifth year. The professor didn’t teach any material today, just went through the outline and gave a brief introduction. Near the beginning of the class he asked how many people in the class of roughly 200 were Sociology majors. Not a single hand went up; it was rather funny!

My second class was ECON 222, or “Technology, Institutions, and Economic Growth”. Again, I couldn’t help but feel a little old. One kid walked into the class and I swear he looked like he belonged in high school. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t look that old either, but this kid was just incredibly young. I was also the only one who said anything the entire class besides the professor (I asked him to clarify if something he said was in real or nominal terms). I think back to my first and second year, and I realize I didn’t say anything back then either. Must be a student maturity thing.

My last “first class” will be tomorrow morning, so we’ll see how it goes. Both of the courses today seem like they will indeed be interesting, so that’s always a good thing. A couple of other notes:

  • I absolutely hate how the Tory building doesn’t have wireless, drives me nuts.
  • My SOC 300 professor very loosely defined “mass media” as television, radio, newspapers, etc. because they are media outlets that reach a mass audience. I think I have come to prefer the term “mainstream media”, as a website or blog or podcast could also be considered mass media in that they can reach the masses. They might not, but neither does the Food Network.
  • It never ceases to amaze me how some people just saunter along in the middle of a major thoroughfare. Do they not realize there are people behind them?
  • I didn’t see anyone in my classes today with a laptop, let alone a Tablet PC. Granted it is only the first day, and there was very little work done. There were a few laptops out in the common areas though.
  • For the fashion-minded among you – I have decided that girls in pink tops and white bottoms look good, but not the other way around. You might not think so at first, but wait until you see them sitting almost side by side as I did today. Pink pants just don’t do it for me.