Episode 24: Skype

An acquisition so wild and crazy, they had to do it again. And again. Ben & David cover tech’s perhaps most-traded asset, Skype (which also happens to be a fantastic business). How do we even know which deal to grade? Tune in to find out…

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Topics covered include:

• Community spotlight: Slack community member Swyx’s financial data research startup Sentieo!
• Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis’s meeting in the 1990’s at Swedish telecom company Tele2
• Zennström & Friis’s introduction to talented Estonian developers Jaan Tallinn, Ahti Heinla, and Priit Kasesalu as part of Tele2’s efforts to jump into the dot com “portal mania”
• Skype’s origins in the technology powering Zennström, Friis and the Estonians’ first startup endeavor together: the peer-to-peer file sharing platform Kazaa
• The “complicated” legal, technological and ownership situation for Kazaa and Skype
• Skype’s “unique” corporate culture, including a swimming pool in the board room and shots for initiating new employees
• The first Skype acquisition: eBay’s 2005 deal to acquire the company for $2.6B, just two years after launch
• Culture clash between eBay and Skype management, and further legal drama regarding Skype technology ownership post-acquisition
• The second Skype acquisition: eBay’s 2009 decision to spin the company out to a private investor consortium including Silver Lake and the newly-formed Andreessen Horowitz
• The third (and final?) Skype acquisition: Microsoft’s $8.5B purchase of the company in 2011
• Skype as a “crossover” product with viable market opportunities both in consumer and enterprise
• Bill Gurley’s “Keys to the 10X Revenue Club” and the power of Skype’s organic customer acquisition model

Followups:

• The Google iPhone… err, Pixel!

Hot Takes:

• AT&T’s $85B mega-acquisition of Time Warner… making America great again, or rebuilding the T-1000?
• The New York Times acquiring The Wirecutter

The Carve Out:

• Ben: Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny
• David: SOMA the Musical starring our very own Acquired listener, the brilliant and talented Jake Saper!