Today, Skype. Tomorrow, Total World Domination

Not helping my paranoia that Mark Zuckerberg is taking over the world: This week’s news stories saying Facebook is about to buy Skype. It’s merely a rumor at this point, and FB’s official statement to Mashable is the snarkilicious “As a practical matter, we avoid commenting on rumor and speculation.” Huh. But it’s not an unreasonable suspicion.

Some tech publications are reporting that both Google and Facebook are interested in owning Skype, which had been purchased for $2.6 billion in 2005 by eBay but was never really integrated on the auction site.

So what does this mean from a public relations standpoint?

Users have commented that Skype can only raise the quality of Facebook’s chat platform, which tends to time-out, fails to show users as online, and generally leaves a lot to be desired.

But Skype being swallowed up by the blob of Silicon Valley? That is a shame.

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