Analysts: Cisco/Skype deal might actually make sense

Sure, we took the rumors of Cisco purchasing Skype with a grain of salt (remember when Cisco was buying Nokia?), but it's not that far fetched right? The aftermath of the rumor mill has some analysts showing how the deal would work.

Over at Connected Planet, Rich Karpinski deconstructs the rumor and finds the time is right for the deal. Skype would fit into Cisco's VoIP portfolio without confusing customers as its core enterprise VoIP offerings are already well established. Telecoms are willing to work with the Skype brand and Karpinski sees owning Skype as a way for Cisco to learn how to build better networks for deploying over-the-top software applications.

GigaOm sees the Skype opportunity as a way for Cisco to add a 'freemium' service to their arsenal. Small companies and startups like unified communications as much as anyone else, but they'd prefer to use Skype for free rather than invest in a big ticket system from Cisco. But as Matt Asay at GigaOm says, those small companies do sometimes grow up and when they do, they can be upsold into the Cisco enterprise world.

For more:
- read Connected Planet
- read GigaOm

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