I blame eBay for that one. Not actually acquiring the underlying technology to Skype was pure idiocy on their part.
I don't blame Skype one bit for taking advantage. My point was that apparently Craig Walker having kids in school and lawyers saying it would take months for the deal to go through was enough to kill a deal that had a high chance of success. I understand Chan was protecting his territory but shame on Google management for going along with it.
As Gannes notes, the timeframe of some of these discussions is left unclear by Levy's book. Are we sure this wasn't a discussion to buy Skype from eBay, or very recently since its spin-out?
