They should sell Skype *on* eBay. At least then they'll stand to pocket a nifty Final Value Fee as part of the deal.

I'll leave the exact details of the listing to the rest of you...

Skype was doomed from the get go.

The whole point of communication is that you have to be able to talk to anybody. If you buy a mobile phone, you can shove any old SIM in it and talk and send text messages to anyone -- to no extent are you constrained to other subscribers with the same company. It's the same if you buy a tethered phone: if you're lucky enough to live in a cable TV area and so have a choice of telephone companies, they have the same sockets, which accept the same phones, and they use the same STD codes for each town. If it was any other way, people would stick to writing letters.

Skype is a closed network, with closed-source software using undocumented (and deliberately obfuscated) protocols. It's difficult to know what they could do to make them less liked a serious player in the communications space. A flashy, binary-only download might satisfy chavvy Windows users who don't know any better; but anyone even half-serious about internet telephony knows that asterisk -- which uses open protocols such as IAX and SIP -- is where it's really at.

(The only thing I can think is, maybe they had some batshit crazy idea to sell advertisement space in phone calls. It's technically feasible, but it has one fatal flaw: absolutely nobody is going to tolerate such a thing, ever.)

The only thing that can save Skype from certain oblivion is for them to open the Source Code -- and that really isn't likely to happen. The current owners seem to have no intention to open it up, and the likes of IBM or Sun won't pay what they're asking.

The initial premise was good, and the execution was fair: Free skype-to-skype calls, some landline tie-ins and a simple to use IM front-end. And then they stopped. They need to set themselves up like Blackberry, or as an MVNO with mobiles in every country. Simplify corporate communication and everyone will want one. Offer the same as everyone else, and you'll just end up an also-ran.

That said, friends who work or live overseas having a local number their family can call for free on their landlines, and forward to their mobiles for pennies a minute makes it a real, if quiet, success.

Yes, it was massively over-hyped on purchase, but the idea is good and I'm sure once they have increased their user base sufficiently (it must still be growing) they'll find some way to monetise it properly with advertising - as Google did with gmail. Yes, the adverts were/are considered slightly intrusive but it must have worked big-time for them and as a gmail user I certainly haven't stopped using the service because of it.

We've also just started using Skype and I'm pretty sure that we will continue to use it as we've found it an excellent free communication tool for family around the world.

If I were Skype chief exec I'd be looking at ways to distribute free PC headsets.

I worry about Skype. 2 years ago they were innovating like crazy, but I haven’t seen any real innovation in the product for ages. OK Skypefind, like I am really going to use that to find a restaurant. Skypeprime, nope I’m not interested in making peanuts answering questions all day. Besides the last time I looked there wasn’t even a directory where you could list your service so there was no way potential customers could find you anyway.

I also saw that Skype let go 30-40 people around the new year, that speaks volumes for the state of the company. Some of those I noticed were responsible for the developer community, that speaks volumes for how Skype views the importance of working with developers. It seems to me they are abandoning the small guys in favour of large deals. Sony, Three etc.

While Skype’s user base continues to grow, they are not making money, they are letting staff go left right and centre (I hear their internal IT team has been cut as well) and they are not innovating like they use to.

I think the writing is on the wall.