November 11th, 2005
Memo to Amazon: if it takes buying IDT to get Net2Phone, do it!
A few months ago, after I posted that Amazon.com ought to snap up Net2Phone, fellow VoIP blogger, friend and peerless wine connoisseur Andy Abramson thought I was a bit daft. He then created a post called "Pass The Pipe, Russell."
Well, here’s the pipe, Andy. The IP pipe.
Let me revisit the issue.
IDT is a diversified telephony services provider that offers a varied suite of retail and wholesale products for business and consumer users throughout the world.
They have a majority stake in once-prominent Net2Phone. Now, they are trying to convince Net2Phone shareholders to sell them the rest for $2 a share. The Net2Phone shareholders have until December 12 to fish or cut bait.
Why Net2Phone shareholders would want to hitch up with IDT for $2 a share makes no sense to me. It’s like a woman with so much potential marrying beneath her station. I’ve seen it, and you have, too.
I’ve written before that Amazon- a key competitor to Skype-acquirer eBay in the auction space- ought to sweep in and buy Net2Phone. So if you are selling something on Amazon, you can talk to your potential buyer(s). That reasoning worked for Meg Whitman, and it ought to for Jeff Bezos as well.
If it takes buying IDT’s Net2Phone shares, Amazon ought to do it. If it takes buying all of IDT, keeping Net2Phone and then selling off IDT, Amazon ought to do it. IDT is in some niche markets a far larger player would love to be in. And we are not talking about a huge gulp here. IDT’s market cap is $1.18 billion, Net2Phone’s is $115 million.
But time’s a wastin.’
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
