It was announced this week that eBay would be acquiring instant messaging and internet telephony company Skype in a deal valued at $4.1 billion. This comes hot on the heels of Microsoft's purchase of heretofor unknown internet telephony startup Teleo. Should I mention Google Talk? Is there any question that internet telephony and VOIP is the next competition space? What does this mean to consumers?

I'm having trouble finding articles tackling the concept at large, but there is no shortage of speculation on the wisdom of these individual acquisitions. $4.1 billion is an exhorbitant amount of money by any standard. Consider that Yahoo purchased Flickr for an undisclosed amount rumored to be around $35 million. I've been personally promoting both services to friends and family for over a year and have had a less than stellar adoption rate for Skype.

My assumption at this time last year was that VOIP would get the 'Bluetooth treatment." It's obviously a good idea and very useful and no one could find anything bad to say about it, but no one is using it either. Well, Bluetooth may finally be catching on, and VOIP may never go through that inexplicable stagnant period at all. The amount of money already poured into the concept is staggering. This may be the last nail in Ma Bell's casket.