NevOn

The broadband siren call

We all want fast always-on internet, right? Not a measly 8-megs-fast (that's what I get here in The Netherlands), something blisteringly fast:

Give me speed that terrifies the old and exhilarates the young. Let me download life with wild abandon. Make it ludicrously affordable, that I may infuriate my friends (but make it easy for them to switch once they have seen the light). Bind me not by annual contracts, but convince me to stay loyal. And give me 24/7 telephone support in case I ever feel lonely.

Don’t cease to innovate.
Don’t give me less than the best.
And don’t ever cap my dreams.

Compelling stuff. Great ad copy from Be's sponsor page in the PodcastCon UK brochure given out at the conference in London on Saturday, promoting Be's 24-meg broadband internet service in the UK.

Mind you, 24 megs seems positively pedestrian compared to the 100 megs that you can get in Japan or in South Korea - a statistic that Yat Siu mentioned when speaking at Les Blogs in Paris last April.

Whatever the speed, make it...

Exhilarating to many.
Frightening to some.
Compelling to all.

A bright future for UK podcasting

A tremendous success - that's my judgment of PodcastCon UK which took place in London on Saturday.

Europe's first conference on podcasting saw 120 or so people gathered together to present, talk, mix and get to know each other in an atmosphere of keen excitement. A massive tip of the hat to the four organizers who put together this groundbreaking event - Paul Nicholls, Adrian Pegg, Alex Bellinger and Neil Dixon.

I met so many people with great thinking and ideas, some I know already or whose podcasts I listen to, others who I met for the first time, including Nicole Simon, David Davis, Richard Byrom, Leanne Byrom, Chris Ritke, Chris Skinner, Richard Vobes, Mark Hunter, Ben Metcalfe, Lloyd Davis, Ewan Spence, Mike Mills, Chris Smith, Marit Hendriks, Jay Pond-Jones and Blugg. Loads of others, too - fleeting chats in the breaks and in the pub after the event.

If PodcastCon UK signifies anything, it's that there is absolutely no shortage of creative ideas, imagination, energy and enthusiasm about podcasting as an entertainment and business tool. Conversations with people were simply idea streams - if only two or three of the things I heard about on Saturday come to fruition, there is a very bright future for the development of this medium in the UK.

Lots of posts and photos already online. Brian Condon posted a good concise summary of most of the presentations including mine. My few photos are here on Flickr.

I presented on the business potential of podcasting. A PDF of my presentation is available for download (1.5Mb) plus the podcast clips MP3 (3.3Mb) I played as part of the presentation, which has samples from podcasts by General Motors, US Air Force, Warner Bros, NASA, IBM and Virgin Atlantic.

Chris Kimber of BBC Radio and James Cridland of Virgin Radio had some very interesting things to say in their presentations. I'll be posting commentary on that in the next day or so.

I was also impressed with Be, the new UK broadband company and the prime sponsor. Rather, impressed with Dana Pressman, Be's managing director, for her highly professional and credible sponsor's presentation. She came across very clearly indeed as the leader of a company who understands this particular audience and their needs. And a very nice gesture - Be had run a competition at the conference with the prize being a year's free 24-meg internet access for the lucky winner. There were three finalists. So she announced each would get the prize. How to win firm friends and influence!

Also, check out Oculas that was on display - a sort of a high-tech capsule or pod that you can get into and shut yourself away from the world and relax yourself with the aid of some cool gadgets inside. That description doesn't do it justice at all, though. Neither does the photo I took (in the Flickr set). Visit their website for details. And if you fly British Airways this month, check out page 17 in the September edition of BA's Business Life magazine - I was flipping the pages on my flight back to Amsterdam today and there is a feature on Oculas.

And last but not least, I didn't see any of the expected Playboy bunnies...

Tags:

• Technorati: podcastconuk
• Flickr: podcastconuk

PodcastCon UK well underway

The afternoon session at PodcastCon UK has just got underway, with a live recording of the Richard Vobes Radio Show.

An opportunity to get online (for the first time since leaving Amsterdam yesterday morning) on the conference hotel's wifi connection to pick up email and RSS and do this quick post.

PodcastCon UK is a terrific event. So many interesting people here. Some great presentations this morning. Lots of photos being taken (Flickr tag: podcastconuk).

Probably about 120 people here, a mixture of podcasters and those who are interested in learning more (it figures).

More later from Amsterdam.

London podcasting conference set for success

Europe's first conference on podcasting takes place in London tomorrow, and it looks clear that it will be a terrific event.

So far, 128 people have signed up and paid their ₤30 to participate in PodcastCon UK. The sign-up wiki shows a further 35 people who still might be there once they've paid the small fee (which you can do via PayPal).

The speaker line-up:

• Chris Kimber, Head of Radio Interactive, BBC – podcasting from a public broadcaster’s perspective
• James Cridland, Head of Strategic Development, Virgin Radio – podcasting from a commercial broadcaster’s perspective
• Milverton Wallace, Managing Director, Quixa NetMedia – podcasting, blogging and social media
• Richard Vobes, The Richard Vobes Radio Show – podcast production
• Neville Hobson, For Immediate Release - podcasting as a tool for business communications
• Chris Ritke, 49Media / Outhink.com - podcast technologies
• Mark Hunter, The Tartan Podcast - the Podsafe Music Network
• Chris Skinner, Simulacrum – a live version of Chris’s legendary Simulacrum podcast
• Paul Nicholls, lawyer and podcaster (podcastpaul.com) – podcasting, legal issues, is speech really free? Defamation

Plus plenty of discussion and debate, with lots of podcasting and blogging too, no doubt. The event is sponsored by Be, a new broadband service in the UK offering ADSL2+ internet connectivity at a staggering 24 megabits. That's fast!

Lots of mainstream media participation and reporting expected. Plus perhaps a surprise or two - one intriguing entry in the participant list on the wiki, from Damian Jennings of Playboy UK, says: "Will have an interesting announcement... and I might bring some bunnies..."

If you're interested in podcasting and want to participate in a ground-breaking event in Europe, this is the one. Still time to sign up.

Hope to see you there!

Trade unions can demonstrate relevance

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the relevance (or otherwise) of trade unions in the UK workplace. This was commenting about a lengthy article in the Financial Times that included interviews with a number of former trade union officials who had made the switch, so to speak, to the 'other side,' taking management jobs with companies.

In a comment to that post, Stuart Bruce pointed out the examples of two UK trade unions who have taken a practical approach to the realities of change in many industries and have modernized themselves, especially this example:

[...] Community now does what it says and is focused on supporting communities in areas that have been hit by the decline of traditional manufacturing industries. This even includes working in partnership with "employers" to bring new jobs into those areas.

Stuart's comment added some good balance to my post, illustrating that in many areas of the labour movement in the UK, some good things are happening today to the mutual benefit of employer, employee and union, and thus local communities.

Yesterday I read a story from BBC News, focused on painful changes required to reshape Germany's business and industrial landscape, regarding a situation in Germany where a trade union played an instrumental role in, literally, rescuing an entire community.

The story concerns a plan by Grohe Water Technology to cut 3,200 jobs from its German workforce of about 4,500 and move production to China.

According to a representative of the IG Metall union quoted in the BBC report, this would have ended Grohe's industrial production in Germany and dealt a devastating blow to the people of the town of Hemer in north-west Germany, where the company is headquartered, who have even named their town square 'Grohe Platz.'

The story has some major complications (political, with a general election soon in Germany; recommendations on the closure from the McKinsey management consulting firm; plus the ownership of Grohe being two foreign private equity firms) and you can read the full details of that in the BBC report.

What I found most interesting was the successful outcome resulting from the key role the union played and how they played it:

[...] Rather than launching industrial action, IG Metall proposed a compromise - accepting almost 1,000 job cuts and one factory closure, in return for fresh investment at remaining German factories to secure future employment. Grohe - wary of negative publicity - swiftly took the union's recommendations onboard and sorted out the dispute internally.

There was praise for IG Metall's efforts in the dispute and the union's membership, which had been slipping steadily for years, was given a much needed fillip. "It is always difficult to call it a victory when several hundred jobs are lost, but compared with the alternative it was a victory," insists [regional IG Metall union representative Joerg] Weigand.

Relevance indeed in the face of some hard reality.

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #68: September 15, 2005

Content summary: Listeners’ comments discussion; new research from IABC Foundation; Google Blog Search; Yahoo! Mail; PodcastCon UK; a how-to ebook on podcasting; new white paper on corporate blogging; Chrysler media blog.

Show notes for September 15, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 73-minute conversation recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and New York City, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 30MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

Show notes OPML: Get the show notes on your own PC, Mac, PDA or other device. To use this file, we suggest trying Dave Winer's OPML Editor (for Windows).

In this Edition:

Detailed show notes and list of links to come.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at fircomments@gmail.com, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 984 0931. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 5Mb attachment, please!). We'll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Monday September 19...

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

Let transparency enter your company

Before you next try and explain to your colleagues or your clients why they should pay attention to business blogging, read a terrific pitch from Loic Le Meur that sets out some of the key reasons.

Example:

[...] One of the reasons why you should open your own blogs is now to participate in this conversation, to have your own voice and let the transparency enter your company. We want to hear your project managers, the people who do research and your employees, not only the corporate message that your websites send, not only the voice of your management and your press releases. We want you to be just a click away. We want to give you suggestions on what you should do better and give you feedback, no need for panels anymore to get our feedback.

But not only read - you can also watch Loic in action (Quicktime, 5.1Mb).

As the guy who runs Six Apart in Europe, Loic should know a bit about this stuff, and he does.

Great thinking, Loic.

Google Blog Search is fast

Like almost everyone else in the blogosphere, I've tried the new Google Blog Search tool, released in beta yesterday.

My immediate impression from doing a half dozen searches at various times today is that it's fast! Much faster than, say, Technorati. Every search I did with Google Blog Search, the results were there in less than one second.

With my searches, it consistently turned up results that weren't in other search tools. Does that mean it's more accurate? Well, Technorati and Feedster both turned up some results that Google Blog Search didn't. So I'm as confused as I was before on how good any of these tools are.

I've resisted reading any detailed reviews or commentaries yet until I've taken a good look myself. But I am paying attention to Steve Rubel's experiment.

Charlene Li at Forrester Research has a good factual write-up.

FIR Interview: Gerry Murray, President IABC Belgium - September 14, 2005

In this edition of For Immediate Release podcast interviews, Neville enjoyed a 47-minute conversation with Gerry Murray, President of IABC Belgium, and a management and communication consultant. Topics discussed include: development plans for IABC Belgium, the new Chapter website and new President's blog, the challenges in engaging members throughout Europe, professional development opportunities for IABC members.

About our conversation partner:

Gerry Murray runs The Wide Agency, an international management and communications consultancy based in Belgium. The Wide Agency focuses on effective communication through strategy creation, project management, content provision and coaching.

Prior to that he spent nine years at the world headquarters of DHL, the express logistics company, holding a variety of roles in marketing, strategic planning, investor relations and corporate communications. His early commercial experience was gained in sales and marketing management in the publishing industry.

Gerry was elected President of IABC Belgium in July 2005 and blogs at The Captain's Log. Previously he held the position of the Chapter's Communications Chair.

An Irish national, he has a BA in French & Linguistics from University College Dublin, an MBA from Manchester Business School and holds the status of Chartered Marketer from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK.

Download the conversation here (MP3, 20MB), or subscribe to the interviews RSS feed to get it and future interviews automatically. You can also subscribe to the full feed to get all FIR podcasts. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you'll also need a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

Interview Segment Time Points:

• 00:26 Neville introduces the interview
• 03:33 Gerry outlines his background: what he did and what he does today
• 07:13 Review of IABC Belgium and its development in recent years
• 09:54 IABC Belgium celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2006
• 11:10 The Captain's Log and the new Chapter website
• 22:41 Gerry: "We have an obligation as an association to be exploring new things"
• 23:05: A series of events planned called 'disruptive communicators' looking at how new things add value to the communication process
• 25:01 Gerry: "How can we use podcasting to preview events?"
• 27:02 Getting involved at the Region level: Chapter development and relations, developing a Job Bank
• 31:50 Helping developing-Chapters use the web
• 34:19 European Leadership Institute meetings
• 37:18 The challenges in engaging members throughout Europe
• 38:56 Eurocomm - a tailor-made professional development event for communicators in Europe
• 44:00 Conversation wrap up
• 45:03 About this podcast and where to find For Immediate Release.

Links for the individuals and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the conversation:

Gerry Murray, IABC, IABC Belgium, IABC Europe Middle East Region, DHL, Lyndon Hrytzak, The Captain's Log, Elizabeth MacDonald, Anton Rath, IABC Cafe, Sam Rowe, Movable Type, Shel Holtz, Top 10 New Technologies for Internal Communicators, Barbara Gibson, Kristen Sukalac, IABC UK, IABC France, IABC Russia, IABC Switzerland, IABC Scandinavia, John Egan, IABC Ireland, European Leadership Institute meeting in Berlin, Eurocomm, Rob Kuijpers, SN Brussels Airlines.

Podsafe intro music - On A Podcast Instrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

Communicating the power of 3

Listening to eBay's investor conference call last night which took place to discuss eBay's acquisition of Skype, and following along with the slide presentation (PDF), it's now clearer to me what the expected synergies are from this deal from eBay's and Skype's perspectives.

It's something they're calling the Power of 3:

(Click to see a larger image.)

What this diagram illustrates to me is a simple addition to the eBay/PayPal business model:

• On eBay, sellers go where the buyers are, and vice-versa.
• With PayPal, more sellers (and not only eBay sellers) offer payment options by that means, and more buyers use that option.
• Integrating Skype into the eBay/PayPal mix gives buyers and sellers the means to quickly and easily get in touch with each other if they want to, and for free if they make their calls entirely via the internet no matter where each of them is. Talk about facilitating global commerce!
• Each part of the mix feeds the other, enhancing the richness of each element and helping to bolster and grow the whole eBay offering.

So that's my concise business takeaway from this deal.

Of course, it's far more complex than that. Questions such as why did eBay buy Skype at all - could they not have simply entered into some kind of service agreement with Skype? Or why did they spend so much - many seem to think it's a very expensive acquisition. There have been plenty of instant analyses during the past 24 hours, both by mainstream media and interested bloggers, that address such questions and provide many different answers.

Three such analyses I've read today, and which I easily understand, are What will Ebay do with Skype? (Financial Times, paid sub), eBay Opens a Whole New Channel (Business Week Online), and Skype - Chapter 2 (Skype Journal). Read them and see what you think.

So where does this place the Skype user, the customer? What's in it for him or her?

Well, I'm a long-term Skype customer - I use all the service offerings - a frequent PayPal user and a very occasional eBay user. I'm probably a hot target type for eBay post-acquisition as getting someone like me to use eBay more must be part of their plan. (If the Dutch eBay site offered the interface in English as well, I'd use it more!)

But speaking as a Skype customer, I think this is a terrific deal for Skype and its users. All the information I've seen and heard since the deal was announced yesterday indicate to me that the customer will be a winner as Skype continuing as a stand-alone business will be able to develop its services with the support and resources of a robust and solid business led by people who demonstrate clarity of purpose and clear direction. There's a lot of confidence there to back up the hard financial facts which I like.

The interesting thing now will be for eBay and Skype to demonstrate all this to customers at a time when the internet phone business is looking poised to really take off. Skype may well have a presence in 225 countries and territories worldwide and be the market leader in every major country, as founder Niklas Zennström said in yesterday's investor call. That matters little to the customer in, say, Italy who continues to have a painful experience calling his auntie in, say, Costa Rica. And when there are viable-looking alternatives like Microsoft Teleo, Google Talk and Gizmo, I wonder what customer/brand loyalty will really mean.

If the foundation's solid, communicating the 'Power of 3' now has center stage.

A powerful combination for Les Blogs 2.0

Exciting news from Blogging Planet, the communication consultancy in which I'm an alliance partner with Guillaume du Gardier, Elizabeth Albrycht and Christoph Ducamp.

Loic Le Meur of Six Apart has invited Blogging Planet to co-produce Les Blogs 2.0, a two-day conference scheduled for 5-6 December in Paris. And, given how close the dates are for Les Blogs 2.0 and Around the Blog, the one-day conference Blogging Planet is organizing on 11 October, we have decided to combine the two events to take place on 5-6 December.

So, Les Blogs 2.0 will incorporate our event as day 2 of the conference. We are duplicating the entire schedule of Around the Blog and have invited all our speakers to participate on 6 December.

The first Les Blogs took place in April in Paris and was very successful, with 250 people from 25 countries attending the one-day event. This time, the event has been expanded to two days, the first focusing on the social media phenomenon, the second on the tools and what you can do with them. Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have signed on to speak. We will be announcing more speakers soon.

The cost will be €200 (excluding VAT) which will include the two-day conference, lunch on both days and the cocktail party on the first day evening.

Registration sign-up page and the conference programme will be available soon on the Les Blogs 2.0 site.

Note your diaries: Les Blogs 2.0 - Paris - 5-6 December 2005.

We hope you can join us!

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #67: September 12, 2005

Content summary: Listeners' comments discussion (bandwidth, bit rates and listening preferences; jazzed about podcasts; answering the logo call); PR firms with no RSS; emergent journalism with PublicNow.com; IABC's Katrina initiative; Queen of Sky sues Delta; eBay acquires Skype, Oracle grabs Siebel Systems, America West goes to US Airways; two new European podcasters; 20 uses for podcasts; 7m iTunes podcasts; from Our Correspondent Down Under; blogs that front sales sites.

Show notes for September 12, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, an 80-minute conversation recorded live from Chicago, USA, and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Download the file here (MP3, 33MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

Show notes OPML: Get the show notes on your own PC, Mac, PDA or other device. To use this file, we suggest trying Dave Winer's OPML Editor (for Windows).

In this Edition:

Intro:

• 00:32 Shel introduces the show; what the show's about; how to give your feedback; show notes

Listeners' comments discussion:

• 02:23 Howard Harawitz on bandwidth, bit rates and listening preferences for podcasts
• 08:54 Kevin Dugan is jazzed about podcasts, gets down to 'brass tax' about the costs of podcasting, and makes a pitch
• 13:27 David Becker answers the logo call

News and Features:

• 15:12 Philip Borreman's informal survey - PR firms in Belgium don't use RSS!
• 21:20 The 'emergent journalism' of NowPublic.com - an interesting viral swarm communication concept, but what about copyright?
• 28:53 IABC's initiative to help members affected by Hurricane Katrina
• 32:15 The Delta Airlines fired blogger, Ellen Simonetti, files a lawsuit; implications for companies who don't have blogging policies
• 36:47 Hot acquisition news - eBay acquires Skype: what are the synergies?
• 42:07 Communicators will be busy - more acquisitions news: Oracle grabs Siebel Systems, and America West merges with US Airways
• 46:23 Two new European podcasters join the crowd - Gullaume du Gardier starts one and Loic Le Meur starts English-language podcasting
• 48:37 Kevin Dugan's 20 creative uses for podcasts
• 50:35 Seven million iTunes podcasts and other Apple stats from Steve Jobs; some iTunes glitches from Shel and Neville
• 54:13 From Our Correspondent Down Under - Lee Hopkins on conversations across podcasts, Trevor Cook on the ABC, Seth Godin's new ebook, and the possible death of the digital intelligentsia
• 66:02 A new category of blogs: retail blogs such as SparkleLikeTheStars designed to sell products - is there an ethics issue where the connection isn't clear?

Outro:

• 72:32 Neville outros the show; how to give your feedback; show notes; the music

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show:

Intro - Steve Crescenzo.

Listeners' comments discussion - Howard Harawitz, Geek News Central, Kevin Dugan, McGraw-Hill, Plantronics, Audacity, Eric Schwartzman, Dan York, David Becker, Effective Edge Communications podcasts.

News and Features - Philip Borremans, Weber Shandwick, Edelman, Oakland Raiders, Stowe Boyd, NowPublic.com, BlueHereNow Technologies, TypePad, Movable Type, Blogger, Reuters, eWeek, Creative Commons, IABC, Hurricane Katrina, IABC Cafe, Lisa Owens, Ellen Simonetti, Delta Airlines, AP, MSNBC, eBay, Skype, Meg Whitman, PayPal, Niklas Zennström, Fred Wilson, eBay investor conference call, Oracle, Siebel Systems, America West, US Airways, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Business Summit, PeopleSoft, Guillaume du Gardier, Loic Le Meur, Six Apart, Robert Scoble, Kevin Dugan, Steve Jobs, Apple, iPod nano, iTunes, Michael Hyatt's iTunes 5.0 problems, iPod, iPod mini, Lee Hopkins, Darren Barefoot, Sally Goetsch, Heidi Miller, Trevor Cook, ABC, Seth Godin, Nicholas Negroponte, SparkleLikeTheStars.com, Ice.com.

Outro - Garageband.com, Dream, The Fishermen, For Immediate Release, A Shel of My Former Self, NevOn.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at fircomments@gmail.com, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 984 0931. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 5Mb attachment, please!). We'll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Thursday September 16...

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel's and my podcast blog.)

Influential Dutch marketing blog in partnering deal

Ilse Media, a Dutch publisher and blog portal, has taken a 25 percent stake in Marketingfacts.nl, one of the most influential marketing and business blogs in The Netherlands.

Ilse Media's strong interest is in "the knowledge power of a community of interactive marketeers," Marketingfacts pioneer Marco Derksen told me (I've known Marco for much of the time I've been seriously blogging since July last year).

Says Marco:

Together with Ilse Media, I will try to professionalise Marketingfacts with the blog as a starting point. Think about courses, conferences, seminars, and I'm working on a Marketingfacts yearbook (with facts & figures on interactive marketing). To do that I needed a partner and I think Ilse Media is the best partner I could wish because it's one of the few Dutch publishers who understands what's going on with blogs, feeds and other social software.

Marketingfacts' latest statistics show that the site had over 150,000 page views last month from nearly 80,000 visitors, an average of over 2,600 visits per day. The blog has over 30 contributors, representing the cream of the Dutch business blogosphere.

Congratulations, Marco!

More information (in Dutch):

• Marketingfacts: Ilse media neemt belang in Marketingfacts
• Ilse Media press release

Ebay says it is acquiring Skype

It's now official - Ebay is acquiring Skype.

A press release on the Ebay investor relations website makes it clear:

London, September 12, 2005 – eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY; www.ebay.com) has agreed to acquire Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA, the global Internet communications company, for approximately $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock, plus potential performance-based consideration. The acquisition will strengthen eBay’s global marketplace and payments platform, while opening several new lines of business and creating significant new monetization opportunities for the company. The deal also represents a major opportunity for Skype to advance its leadership in Internet voice communications and offer people worldwide new ways to communicate in a global online era. Skype, eBay and PayPal will create an unparalleled ecommerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world.

“Communications is at the heart of ecommerce and community,” said Meg Whitman, President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay. “By combining the two leading ecommerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with the leader in Internet voice communications, we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the Net.”

[...] eBay will host an investor conference call to discuss the announcement at 5 am Pacific Time today. A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed through the eBay’s Investor Relations website at http://investor.ebay.com. An archive of the webcast will be accessible through the same link.

See Ebay's PDF press release for the complete announcement.

[Edit] Skype has also posted the press release.

Ebay acquisition of Skype looks imminent

Still just a rumour? Last Thursday, the Financial Times reported on a strong rumour that Ebay was in talks to acquire Skype.

This morning, the FT has this story prominently displayed on its home page:

Ebay was in the final stages late on Sunday night of sealing an agreement to buy Skype, the fast-growing provider of voice calls over the internet, for more than $2.6bn, according to a person close to the situation.

The deal, which ends a flurry of takeover approaches from other internet and media companies, could cost as much as $4.1bn, if Skype hits certain performance targets between now and 2008.

Financial Times | Ebay set to seal Skype deal for over $2.6bn (paid sub)