I was wondering where Amazon was when Apple laid a claim to the cloud (ala Gore) and banned Amazon from the appstore back in January of 2012. I guess Amazon was busy keeping a low profile, it was getting ready to release its own version of a cloud killer app and says hello to Android.

Amazon is becoming quite a thorn on the side of Apple and some other table makers. Price points are down, and keep going down, and the product(s) are getting better. Of course the iPad is still the leader, but Amazon is sneaking up.

Late last year, companies were playing ping pong with Skype. Ebay buys Skype, Ebay sells Skype, investors buy Skype, Ebay keeps 35 percent of Skype. Microsoft Buys Skype.

Like a storm at the tail end of winter, the Skype storm is back. In 2005 it was the headline, “Ebay buys Skype for $2.6 billion ($1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock and a further payout of up to $1.5 billion if certain financial targets were met)”.

Then Ebay sold Skype back to investors for $2.025 billion but retained 35 percent (This means the value at time of sale was $3.1 billion) so it retained a value of $1.085 billion, in the books of course.

Let’s do some math. This means, Ebay originally paid $1.3 Billion cash and $1.3 in stock, and then got $2 billion in cash back and kept 35 percent of the company. Now when Microsoft pays the $8.5 Billion in cash, Ebay will get another $2.975 Billion in CASH.

So Ebay, in 6 years, put $1.3 Billion in a bank, sold $1.3 Billion in stock and collected $4.75 Billion. This is the equivalent of putting the $1.3 Billion in the bank and getting a 9 percent return over the six years (Now $2.18 Billion) and selling your stock at a 100 percent markup (Now $2.57 Billion)

I would say, that person at Ebay that was probably fired (IMHO) for picking up a clunker for ebay, wass scrambling madly to find an attorney. (Not that we would have heard about this!)

Another issue: Ebay had a payout (Definition) of $1.5 Billion if certain financial targets were met, through the original Skype deal. I’m sure that part of the contract is dead, but I would say this is one hell of a way to meet any financial target. IMHO, Zennström and Friis are also probably looking for a lawyer at this very moment to see if there is anything they can do. But knowing Zennström and Friis, they probably don’t care about the money as much as the fact that their baby is beautiful.

Well, now that Microsoft has been its daddy for a while, their plans (still not implemented) are to Kinect it to the Xbox and have people Kinect to each other with Skype while playing online games. However they did implement it into Windows 8 for Mobile Phones.

What a turn of events. I just hope that we don’t end up paying for Microsoft’s purchase. Well, somebody has to. Oh yeah I forgot, Skype has ballooned into 280 Million users. This is good news for Microsoft and Ebay. I guess Ebay saw this as an opportunity to be able to redesign its log0. I say money wasted. Who designed the logo? A 5 year old that learned how to write letters? E-B-A-Y, hey there’s a logo. I’m sure they shelled out a pretty penny for that.

One day Phonezy, a typical consumer, who was very happy with his folding tiny Motorola razor phone that fit in his shirt pocket and only needed to get charged once a month (ok, a bit exaggerated) walked by the local wireless store. He saw this weird thingy that looked like a flattened brick with no name on it and only one button.

Curious to find out what that was, he went inside and there was an Apple employee there. What! Apple is selling computers in a phone store?? He was curious so he asked.

Phonezy – What are you selling here?
Apple – We have a new thingy called an iPhone
Phonezy – I use my eye to make a call?
Apple – No it’s wonderful and everyone in the world will buy it.
Phonezy – Oh yes then, here is my paycheck for the eyePhone.

(3 months later)

<ring…ring>

Apple – Hey we have a new iPhone called the 3GS
Phonezy – Hey, how did I miss the iphone2?? OK, hold one, I’m coming down there,  here’s my paycheck for the iphone 3GS.

(3 months later)

<ring…ring>

Apple – Hey, I know you bought the 3GS a couple of months ago, but we have this neat one called an iPhone 4 which we had ready, but we wanted to get rid of all the excess inventory of the 3GS units that we built before taking into account that that damn Google company was making a phone that was going to be popular.
Phonezy – Wow, ok,  but I have to wait for this paycheck and the next for that wonderful iphone4.

(3 months later)

<ring…ring>

Apple – Hey, I know you bought the iPhone4…
Phonezy – ….aaaahhhhhhh, iPhone5 !!!!! not another paycheck!!!. Why can’t you guys get it right and just have me buy one phone then I can just upgrade the software till the damn thing dies?
Apple – Oh, that would be the Android phone actually. We can’t let you upgrade software, how can we make money if we do that? You want us to make money and stay around so we can innovate don’t you? I know you do.
Phonezy – (inaudible…)
Apple – Sir, hello. Are you there? We are preparing the iPhone 6 so please stay available. We need you.

—– How did Apple Come up with the iPhone? ———

aPhone – No, we don’t want to appear snooty
bPhone – No, it almost sounds like it wants to “Be a Phone”
cPhone – Nope, C is not good, people will think we got a C for our first try
dPhone – D stands for dud, dope, etc. forget it
ePhone – Now we might have something here, then again e=effort? nooo
fPhone – No Way! We don’t want to be associated with the “F” word
gPhone – Damn, why did Google have to start with a G?
hPhone – Oh No, the Japanese might not buy this. Brings back memories
iPhone – I?? Is, It, looks like a #1

Ok, it was done in good fun. Get over it.