Speaking exclusively to Comms Business Magazine Hatcher pulled no punches when he said, “I would liken Nadahl Shocair to Derek Rowe of Decca who in 1961 went down in history as the man who turned down The Beatles. The man had no imagination and as we all know the rest became history. Leaving aside the fact that with current exchange rates £2.6bn is not worth what it used to be, the eBay deal looks good value and makes immanent business sense to me particularly when almost as soon as the ink was dry on the deal Skype made the announcement that they now have a business proposition for their internet calling service.”
Hatcher continued, “Yes, I agree that perhaps eBay could have used any chat program to deliver exactly the same service to customers but Shocair ignores the fundamental issues – that of market momentum and business pre-requisites. Skype has over 61 million registered users – a base that is growing faster than some can count. No-one else is close to Skype and can 61 million users all be wrong?
Concluding, Hatcher told Comms Business Magazine, “Everyone today wants value for money and users of communications services are no exception. Reducing call costs is a priority for many businesses and VoIP is clearly going to be a huge opportunity for many to do so in the future. What we in the channel have to do is identify how we can successfully participate in this opportunity.”