Told You So ...

It's official: eBay's purchase of Skype was a bust. Well, if not exactly a bust, the fact that they have written off some $1.4 billion makes it a half-bust at least (isn't a half-bust, a breast?) Additionally, the CEO, Zennstrom, gets the boot and they apparently negotiated a one-third pay out of the incentives part of the deal, but declined to reveal whether or not that was justified by the obviously-disappointing results.

What were they thinking? Indeed, was any thinking involved? Since when does anyone with half a brain believe the financial projections of a start-up for crissakes? Oh, except VCs, of course, who if they stopped believing the insanely-optimistic projections of those pitching to them would suddenly realise how close to the edge they were in fact standing.

Upshot? Don't expect Mystic (not) Meg over at eBay to be doing any Web 2.0 acquisitions in order to grab "eyeballs" any time soon! And someone, somewhere inside eBay will be looking for a job for even daring to think this made sense.