Yes....So it has...Well...Almost...Looks like we are slowly, but definitely, gettin to the pre dot com bust timezone again...Considering the spate of acquisitions of internet companies in the recent few months, and even more being speculated hotly, looks like we are in for an extended period of insanity being creeping into this funny thing called an internet company....While I, for one, was kinda taken aback at the amount shelled out (close to $600Million) by Old man Murdoch to buy out Myspace, the amounts being bandied around weblogs the world over with respect to Skype are sure to confirm the pervasive presence of insanity !!! For those that haven't heard abt it still, it is in the range of $3Billion !!! (you can read a recent /. discussion on it here) And yes, the likely suitors for Skype...Well, depending on which author you read, it is likely to be any one of M$, Murdoch, google, any of the voice giants like Verizon, or any other huge media group....
Personally, having used VoIP apps over a period of time, starting with apps like RocketTalk (now extinct), DialPad and many others, at first I really could not really understand the whole fuss abt skype (it has in excess of 140million downloads !!),when a kind soul pointed out to me its p2p bedrock....So it sure does use a different technology than the time-barred centralized server thingie...And is yet another of these recent internet companies that sport a down-to-earth barebones, yet fully functional, piece of s/w....I guess more than the tech or userbase itself, if skype were to be worth even a third of what it is said to be worth, I'd say thats just for the enormous brand equity that it has generated....Close to 30million users who feel *very* strong about being associated with the brand !!! That something that many consider priceless !!!
PS: How can one say madness prevails and not touch upon whats happening closer home.....The sensex seems to be in a direct exponential proportion to the rising waters in Mumbai and elsewhere...Guess thats one tough insane creature to beat ;)
Posted by Subrahmanyam at August 1, 2005 03:11 PMComment on PS:
Usually a general trend of rising sensex after any calamity(like mumbai waters or tsunami etc) is attributed to high growth expectations derived from re-construction efforts requiring pumping of huge amount of money into manufacturing industries.
But sensex jumping "during" a calamity is a bit surprising...it actually does not seem to have affected at all !!
Posted by: Ketan at August 8, 2005 11:58 PM