Skype is clearly feeling the heat and trying to spin things as they begin their defensive posture on behalf of eBay’s acquisition through what can best be described as a good offense. You see in sports the best defense is a good offense and that seems to be how Skype’s team is playing things these days.
But with a difference. In the past Skype would never really get into the looming battle publicly with Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL or anyone else, striking the pose of "We’re Different. They’re Me Too."
Well now that armor is starting to crack as the "me toos" are basically operating the same way as Skype, and on another level starting to outflank the upstart overnight sensation and using built in audience numbers to devalue the Skype-eBay marriage. And with Google looming and new technologies appearing every day, Skype has to begin finding new markets to facilitate the growth rate needed for eBay to be able to continue to justify the purchase price, and for Skype’s investors to really "earn out" the max.
This play on the idea of translation services may have been the carrot that got Meg Whitman and her cronies to bite, but I think it’s more of a dream than a reality yet for Skype. Why wouldn’t companies like LangageFon a telephony translation service company, be already doing that with eBay and now and make use of Skype without the built in back end PayPal payment service since the Skype conference calling capability came along using Skype In and Out numbers (or maybe they are??)
Bottom line is the idea of the translation between buyers and sellers right now is not even talk. It’s lip service.
Maybe that’s becasue of things like forward looking statements and all exist and the risks associated with them. I bet Skype’s spokespersons have been very quicly schooled on how not to talk. And that’s a change that will only play into the hands of the all the rest, who already know how the game is played.