News Corp. eyed Skype for $3 bln takeover - report!

Dashken · 8th Aug 2005, 03:09 PM

Quote:

LONDON (Reuters) - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE:NWS - news) is understood to have held talks with Skype to buy the Internet telecoms software provider for around $3 billion, but the talks broke down, the Independent on Sunday reported.

The newspaper, citing unnamed well-placed sources, said the talks between Skype Technologies and News Corp fell apart last month, just before Murdoch's son Lachlan quit his father's empire.

The paper said privately-held Luxembourg-based Skype had denied it was for sale, but industry sources had told it that they expected the company to be taken over shortly.

Officials at News Corp. and Skype were not immediately available for comment.

Run out of London, Skype was founded by Niklas Zennstrom, a Swedish businessman who also co-founded Kazaa, the file-sharing software provider and rival of Napster that enables users to download music from the Internet for free. Skype's free software allows users to make Internet-based calls worldwide at no cost and is seen as a threat to traditional telephone companies. The company's free software is used by over 42 million users, with 150,000 new users signing up daily.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050808/...ecoms_skype_dc

zy · 8th Aug 2005, 04:05 PM

my guess is that they will start charging users if they bought over the company

aKho · 9th Aug 2005, 07:32 AM

oh well...we'll just move on to the next best thing now won't we...

voip is pretty cheap nowadays anyway...

b104 · 28th Jan 2006, 06:13 PM

Is VOIP a program like Skype? I thought it was just a protocol used between internet game players. Do they have the ability to charge?

Falcone · 30th Jan 2006, 06:51 PM

Wiki...Wiki...Wiki...Wiki...Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOIP

8th Aug 2005, 04:05 PM	#2 (permalink)
zy zynine.com Join Date: 16 Dec 2002 Location: Buffalo NY Posts: 13,496 Reputation: 2276 Rep Power: 43	my guess is that they will start charging users if they bought over the company __________________

9th Aug 2005, 07:32 AM	#3 (permalink)
aKho beat around the bush Join Date: 3 Jun 2005 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 2,830 Reputation: 1239 Rep Power: 19	oh well...we'll just move on to the next best thing now won't we... voip is pretty cheap nowadays anyway... __________________

28th Jan 2006, 06:13 PM	#4 (permalink)
b104 Getting there Join Date: 18 Aug 2004 Location: Ex-Tokyo shoebox renter Posts: 230 Reputation: 28 Rep Power: 6	Is VOIP a program like Skype? I thought it was just a protocol used between internet game players. Do they have the ability to charge? __________________ B104

30th Jan 2006, 06:51 PM	#5 (permalink)
Falcone Official Mascot Creator Join Date: 18 Dec 2002 Location: Shanghai, See En Posts: 3,374 Reputation: 1878 Rep Power: 29	Wiki...Wiki...Wiki...Wiki...Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VOIP __________________ I'm a noob, my photos sucks, but if you can live with that... http://www.pumpkinproject.com/ Flickr