

Micrsoft Overpaid for Skype...by $4.5 Billion - besvinick
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/10/did-microsoft-overpay-for-skype-hell-yes-%E2%80%94-by-4-5-billion/

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demetris
Yeah. Microsoft should have consulted with the TechCrunch analysts first. What
were they thinking?

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gte910h
I was curious myself why they didn't let the company IPO then buy it out. It
seems that could have happened for far far less than 8 billion.

I guess the facebook preIPO buyout issue was there.

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wglb
But isn't it possible that the IPO could go very well, then MS would have a
_bigger_ price to pay?

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gte910h
Of course that's possible. They were looking like making 1-2 billion on the
IPO though from estimates, and that means the total market cap would have
likely been under 5 billion still.

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orijing
Microsoft perhaps overpaid for Skype, which is reminiscent of something that
happened in the past.

Google wanted to acquire a 2.5%-5% stake in Facebook at a $10 billion
valuation in 2006 or 2007 (forgot), but Microsoft came in for a 1.6% stake at
a $15 billion valuation. It seems like Microsoft is always competing with
Google to acquire a company (or a share of it), and as a result it ends up
paying significantly above what Google offers.

In the end, the Facebook investment worked out for them but I'm not sure if it
was the best decision at the time.

Perhaps Microsoft can do something with Skype.

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smackfu
Gee, I wonder if Google possibly has an incentive to release this rumor.

