Skype in merger talks with Yahoo?

It's sort of early in the game on this, but word on the street is that Skype and Yahoo are in "close contact," as in, snuggly enough to talk about a possible buyout. It makes sense from the standpoint that Yahoo already wants to add voice to their Yahoo! Messenger platform, and Skype would be an attractive acquisition in terms of merging IM with VoIP. The concern, though, is that it would complicate Yahoo's relationship with the Baby Bells as it tries to build its media empire status. In any case, though, it does look like both parties are interested in cooking up some sort of commercial partnership. Ain't courtship grand?

[Elias @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

This might ruin a good thing. Yahoo! Messenger already has voice chat, and so do their chat rooms.

Skype is better kept the way it is, than being bought by Yahoo!. For some reason, this reminds me of AOL buying NullSoft (WinAmp).

-- Elias

[hesh @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

This would be horrible. Skype is a great app and would only suffer by merging with Yahoo.

[gork @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Um...Yahoo Instant Messenger ALREADY HAS voice integrated. It just does nto have the ability to skype OUT to a phone line. For me and my brother, Yahoo Instant Messenger Works Fine.

[Owen Williams @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Oh please no. Skype is great because the interface is clean and uncluttered. I couldn't stand it if it had built-in ads, tickers, alerts, and all that other crap that yahoo tacks on to everything.

[Ian Jardine @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Have Yahoo recently tired the poor sound quality on Skype?

[dalton @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

I have a feeling that Yahoo buying Skype outright would turn it into an unusable, ass backwards application. Banner ads all over my damn screen. And right after I bought that Actiontec Skype gateway thingy and a SkypeIn number, too!

I'm hoping that maybe Yahoo will just licence the technology and either drop a co-branded application on us or integrate the technology into their IM client. After all, as with other P2P networks, the more active users, the better, right?

PS: #5 - have you tried Skype recently? Clear as a bell on every computer and connection I've tried it on.

[Martin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Yahoo! UK already have a partnership with BT (the incumbent UK telco) to provide Y!IM with voip (http://www.btyahoo.com). In a recent edition of Money Programme (BBC TV) Skype was cited as a major threat to BT in the UK voip market. Even if the FCC is OK with the buyout, a few eyebrows may be raised this side of The Pond.

[Metus @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

ICQ died when AOL bought it from Mirabillis

[Matthew Moss @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

i don't know why everyone is complaining about banner ads. yahoo is the only one out of the big three (aim, msn, yahoo) that DON'T have any ads in their messenger service. to me, it looks like they have positioned it as a hub that drives people to their online sites, where the ads actually are. if you've checked out the latest beta, you can even update your yahoo 360 blog and blast directly from the messenger.

[Liam Billington @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Hmmmmmm.... Somehow this seems messy, In England we have BT Yahoo internet, BT being the UK's largest landline phone company. BT deffinately doesn't like VOIP as it's eating into there revenues. There only saving grace is to put usage caps on broadband and to have a stupid �10 per month line rental.

BT may not want to touch Skype at all and leave it be and try and compete, or it may take over and take on Skype customers too which would be a good way for them to get more customers on a global scale and a larger market share of VOIP revenues. BT is just too expensive.

[jalansutera @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Why dont Google buy Skype. Google has not such application as Yahoo has Messenger and Chat Room. Come on Google, buy Skype now!

[Pikkos @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Right, then we can all become supernodes, and save these companies money. Skype's technology is definitely lacking. It should not be out there in the first place. It is the same situation �majority use windows when UNIX exists- promotion of less advanced technology.

[Marshall Kirkpatrick @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

I vote no. Oh, no one cares. Or do they?

[Keith Jenkins @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Well, Yahoo recently purchased flickr, http://www.flickr.com - the great photo-shaing site. All the protests have been for naught; flickr still works great - the only change is that now they have the money to build the system they, and their users, want.
Thanks Yahoo for not being Microsoft or AOL (or Google) and screwing up a good thing!

[james @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Will be fine as long as skype current users get to keep their own version of the clean interface and yahoo IM users get additional functionality ported in. As with any merger there is the culture thing that needs to be respected. Yahoo, for me has almost 2 identities. The old Yahoo, with an annoying smiley face, and full of marketing crap, and a slicker newer ident. as seen in Y360(ok, i'm 33 and have a specific design preference, plus i'm a designer). Just make sure the Skype evangelists get to maintain their visual identity without all the junk(if this turns into a deal).

[cavin edwards @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

""""Will be fine as long as skype current users get to keep their own version of the clean interface and yahoo IM users get additional functionality ported in.""""

I am wondering if this will happen ?

Is it in Yahoo's interest to slip Skype silently away and simply adopt its p2p type functionality and sound API's ?

I am seriously against mergers, i think they harm almost all industries they apply to.

I will always favour partnerships...

Yahoo is good at IM ?
Skype is good at voice ?

Therefore partner rather than merge ?

*** personally I think skype beats yahoo on IM too ***

[Sanchez @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

12. Google DOES have an IM messenger, it's called "Hello" and focuses on picture sharing, Google should buy them, merge the 2 messaengers, and add some extra features. Thats a killer. Thing is, there is already 5 main messenger services and they cover pretty much every internet user, it's too late to enter the market.

[Sadik @ Dec 19th 2005 1:23AM]

Yahoo is allready a junction of so many things. It should avoid getting into one of thoudands things its doing.To me it seems a big jungle of links though :)