A question for PA forum members

[senortout]

I would like to know how many members know of and use Skype? This is in no way meant to be an endorsement, or a plug, just a question.

The reason I am posing the question....

Some of the features of Skype tend to lend themselves quite well to conversing with others, in real time, at little or no cost. For instance, you can grab the software for free, and if you have a decent mic and speakers, you can talk to anyone in U.S. or Canada free. You can even dial land-lines or cell phones, although there is a charge for that. I have canceled my long distance service and pay Skype $30.00 per year (current rates, I just took another year)

But for conversational purposes, computer to computer is free. The voice quality is excellent, I think just as good as my hard-wired phone.

Now, the real thing is, I want some on-line friends to talk horse-racing with.
Since my situation no longer enables me to travel the 50 miles daily to attend the races live, the only thing I really miss about the place is my friends there. So, I want to make new friends online.

Long story short, could you folks who have or feel you might get Skype, send me a private message so we could discuss this some more....

sincerely,
Tom Byers (senortout).....ps I can be reached on Skype by typing..
senortout, its that simple....usually I leave Skype turned off unless I am making a long distance call, but for a while, I will turn it on and await your calls.....say between now(its 4:30 my time) and 8 o'clock(again, my time)

Thanks!

[CBedo]

I have used Skype for sometime and the voice quality as improved dramatically since the beginning. My family uses it quite a bit to stay in touch. Video quality isn't great but it's good enough for most. I also like the ability to be able to send instant messages and links while I'm talking to you.

[plainolebill]

My daughter and her family are in Rome, we use it to talk to them - it's only .05 a minute Skype to landline. I also use it when I'm in Mexico. I'm not ready to give up my landline though.

[JustRalph]

I thought skype was rumored to be going out of business?

Didn't they lose a patent case or something?

[bigmack]

I thought skype was rumored to be going out of business?
Didn't they lose a patent case or something?
Few years back Ebay buys Skype for something like $3 bil :bang: Fires the founders. Recently Ebay sells a majority stake of Skype for a couple bil, enter old founders saying they can't sell the code used for peer to peer. Lawsuit pending.

[chickenhead]

quite a scandal for Ebay, it's absolutely unconscionable for them to pay what they did for Skype without getting any rights to the underlying technology that makes it possible. They basically bought a user interface and a customer list.

[Canarsie]

I have been using Skype since the beginning it works quite well and is the best venue for sharing files bar none. In fact if someone I know wants something huge that is the only program I will use.

Skype's founders also started Kazza ( remember that?) and are know for filing litigation ebay had to know this before buying it.

Having said all of this with cell phones giving you tons of minutes and keeping 10 people for unlimited calls I hardly use it anymore to talk.

When the new droid phones come out I'm 100% positive you will be able to use Skype with it as the boss at Verizon Wireless has already stated so. The VW network is so far superior to ATT that using Skype won't kind bandwidth on the network.

I'm tautog on Skype if anyone cares :lol:

[eqitec]

I've used it intermittantly and found it to work quite well. Hope to use it a lot more from now on.
My Skype name is hightecq.
Always interested in discussion about TB racing especially at TAM during the winter. Would also like to test sharing screens from my handicapping training software with other Skype users.

[Canarsie]

This just came out in the Times today just read it. You have to be a member but it's free. They do carry lots of good technology stuff some which can be emailed into your box.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/technology/companies/04skype.html?th&emc=th

[Steve 'StatMan']

My family members have a standing internet card game (using Yahoo Games) on Sunday nights, and we use Skype for voice chat for the evening, for free. Been wonderful keeping our spread out family connected, and all for free.

[Canarsie]

November 7, 2009
Founders Win a Piece of Skype From eBay

SAN FRANCISCO — EBay has formally settled the litigation around its sale of the Skype online calling service.

The founders of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, will drop their lawsuits against the company and a consortium of buyers whose bid to purchase 65 percent of Skype was announced last month, according to an announcement released by eBay before the opening of the stock markets on Friday.

As part of the complex agreement, the founders will own a 14 percent stake in the new Skype and receive two seats on the board.

EBay’s share of the new Skype will fall to 30 percent, and the buyers’ consortium will now own 56 percent of the company. The founders will also transfer the disputed intellectual property owned by their company Joltid, which was at the heart of the legal battle, over to Skype.

“Skype will be well positioned to move forward under new owners with ownership and control over its core technology,” said John J. Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, in the statement. “At the same time, eBay continues to retain a significant stake in Skype and will benefit from its continued growth. We look forward to closing the deal and focusing on growing our core e-commerce and payments businesses.”

As reported earlier this week, Index Ventures, which had played a critical role in organizing the buyout bid for the calling service, and whose role was central in the litigation spawned by the sale, has left the deal altogether. In a statement announcing the deal, Danny Rimer, a partner at Index, said that “the deal terms changed for Index such that it no longer matches our investment criteria, and thus we have decided not to participate in the transaction.”

As part of the settlement, the Skype founders received a 10 percent share of the new Skype, and they also paid $83 million for another 4 percent of the company. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

“Everything is settled and aligned,” said Marc Andreessen, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, which contributed $50 million to the buyout. “There’s been a lot of drama, but fundamentally it is still a good deal.”

Skype allows its 520 million registered users to make free calls to one another using their computers or mobile devices that run Skype software, and it charges low rates to call regular phones. Skype brought in $185 million for eBay in the last quarter and was the fastest-growing part of its business. Despite the dispute surrounding the sale, users of the service will not be affected by the transition.

The settlement caps almost a year of hard-nosed and clever maneuvering by the Skype founders. They first bid to buy Skype back from eBay almost a year ago, putting up hundreds of millions of their own money alongside cash from several private equity funds, including Elevation Partners in Silicon Valley.

The Skype founders, according to a person familiar with that deal, had ambitious plans to free Skype from the demands of short-term financial performance and to concentrate on expanding the service on mobile phones and in the developing world.

EBay, however, did not respond to their bid, and the founders resorted to litigation to scare away other potential buyers. In a lawsuit filed in March in a British court, they said eBay had violated the copyright to the underlying source code of Skype’s peer-to-peer network, owned by Joltid, another company they controlled.