eBay reported its first quarterly loss in eight years after taking a $1.39 million charge against its Skype acquisition, but the Web powerhouse seems determined to make Skype a winner. Not that Skype is a total loser. As part of yesterday's eBay earnings report, the company said Skype's revenue was up 96% over the same quarter last year, and despite a major service outage recently, Skype's subscriber base continues to grow--it just surpassed 246 million users worldwide.
The write down against the acquisition has been largely connected to eBay having over-paid to acquire Skype. However, eBay is moving ahead with changes, having already named as acting CEO, Chief Strategy Officer Michael van Swaaij, after founder Niklas Zenstrom stepped down. eBay also is looking to open more deeply integrate Skype with its other assets, and expand Skype's reach through new partnerships--the VoIP player's new relationship with MySpace, announced earlier this week, fits that mold.
For more:
- The Associated Press has this story
Related articles:
- eBay recently warned of a Skype-related earnings charge