Rumor Mill: Cisco buying Skype?

Reliable sources in the blogosphere aren't always that reliable, but they do make for good stories. Lighting up this Monday's rumor news wires is the tale that Cisco has made an offer on Skype prior to their big IPO--courtesy of TechCrunch. The blog offers no confirmation of the rumors only to say that the source is 'reliable.'

With Google launching its VoIP service last week, the world of desktop-based VoIP calling has been all stirred up. What will Skype do? What will other softphone-based VoIP offerings do? What will Vonage do with its click-to-call Facebook app? Now that Google VoIP is here, shouldn't everyone else just bow out? No, that would be incredibly boring. Instead, perhaps Skype and Cisco will team to let Google know whose boss in the space. The Wall Street Journal has mused that the Google VoIP launch will serve to accelerate the Skype IPO--but perhaps it will also accelerate others to try to acquire the company.

TechCrunch goes on to say that the Skype IPO was planned to be around $5 billion, so if a suitor was negotiating prior to the offering, they'd be bidding in that range. Not a cheap way to challenge Google's perceived dominance.

For more:
- read the TechCrunch post
- read the WSJ Skype IPO/Google VoIP article

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