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MySpace and Skype Join Forces

by Tim Stevens on October 17, 2007 at 09:35 AM

Skype Gets Friendly on MyspaceIt was just a couple weeks ago that eBay was lamenting paying far too much for online phone calling service Skype, making the acquisition for a whopping $2.6 billion back in 2005. But, news today of a partnership with MySpace may brighten the online auction house's fortunes a bit. Late next month MySpace users will be able to make Skype calls to their friends directly from their profiles, or indeed to any other Skype user.

While Skype also offers for-fee calls to physical phones, whether they be landlines or cellys, the biggest draw for its users has always been the free calls to other Skype users. However, making these calls has always required the installation and configuration of Skype software, something many potential users can't be bothered with. Thanks to the partnership with MySpace, Skype calling will be able to be done directly from the MySpace IM client, so those who have that installed won't need to download anything else. It's a huge deal for Internet phone calling, also known as VOIP.

So, is this the next step in the beginning of the end for the phone industry, or will eBay just have to keep complaining about spending too much for an unprofitable startup? Only time will tell.

From BBC News, Webware and AOL Money and Finance

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Tags: eBay, Internet Telephony, InternetTelephony, MySpace, Skype, VOIP

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