Stock Preacher

Yesterday eBay agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Skype Internet calling service, bringing closure to a deal that was viewed as the Internet auction company’s biggest strategic mistake. The sale to a group of private investors, in return for US1.9B in cash and a US$125M debt instrument, marks the reversal of an ambitious 2005 push into online communications that came to cloud the final years at the company of Meg Whitman, its former chief executive. The transaction will cut loose one of the biggest and fastest-growing private Internet businesses. With US$551M of revenues last year and 405MM registered users, Skype’s global reach has made it one of the best-known consumer brands, and its free computer-to-computer calls have had a disruptive effect on traditional telephone companies. Read more

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Google has forged a distribution alliance with Sony’s PC division and is in talks with other computer makers as it looks to promote its well-regarded but little-used Chrome browser. The renewed efforts to expand the reach of Chrome come a year after Google opened a new front in the browser wars with the surprise launch of the software. They highlight the difficulties the company has faced in using Chrome as a strategic weapon to counter Microsoft.The deal with Sony, which involves shipping Chrome on new Vaio PCs, is the first the Internet company has struck with a computer maker. Similar distribution alliances have become a key part of the Internet search wars as Microsoft and Google vie to be the default search service on new PCs. Read more

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Dell Inc.’s Q-2 Y 2009 results reinforce what other tech giants have shown recently about the health of the personal computer industry: it was wounded by the recession, but is getting back on its feet, thanks to consumers, bargain prices and little “netbook” laptops for surfing the Internet. Dell’s message was similar to those offered by rival Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s No. 1 PC seller, and supplier Intel Corp., the world’s biggest computer chip maker, in their latest quarterly reports: consumers are coming back to the stores to buy PCs, but corporations are still being stingy. Read more

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Microsoft and Yahoo have restarted talks about forging an internet partnership, raising the possibility of a new alliance to counter Google’s growing influence over the online world. News of the discussions was confirmed by one person familiar with the discussions, though neither company would comment on the talks. Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s chief executive, and Steve Ballmer, her counterpart at Microsoft, have started the talks in recent days, though no formal proposals have been developed and the discussions are at a very early stage, this person said. The latest discussions have involved a wide range of possible outcomes that would lead to ways of combining or pooling some of the internet assets of the two companies, according to the person familiar with the discussions. They have yet to focus on any one preferred direction, the person said.

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