So...Skype dropped the ball (didn't develop a mobile client), got their asses handed to them (by iSkoot, which did, and got a Hutchison partnership out of it) - and then decided to catch up cheap by making their own, rather than buying the startup.
So why should Skype buy iSkoot - especially now they've fully duplicated their one big asset? The article doesn't really make much of a case.
I can understand the sympathy with iSkoot, as the startup underdog - but they were playing in Skype's back yard, in territory that really should have belonged to the bigcorp from the start, and so it should surprise nobody when the gorilla chooses to "build, not buy". (Especially for such a relatively simple product...)
So why should Skype buy iSkoot - especially now they've fully duplicated their one big asset? The article doesn't really make much of a case.
I can understand the sympathy with iSkoot, as the startup underdog - but they were playing in Skype's back yard, in territory that really should have belonged to the bigcorp from the start, and so it should surprise nobody when the gorilla chooses to "build, not buy". (Especially for such a relatively simple product...)