Because it's "just fun", Skype has breathlessly announced its software has been downloaded more than 150 million times while there are more than 50 million registered Skype names. As Om Malik succinctly notes, the updated numbers don't provide any value-added information. It's interesting that everyone knows Skype has hired an investment firm - Morgan Stanley - to explore the company's options (acquisition, IPO) and that talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. happened yet Skype is unwilling to disclose any new financial or user metrics. Like Vonage, there is sexiness and mystique in being a privately-owned company. Without having to file quarterly results, you get to keep everyone guessing about how you're doing. Speculation = Interest...Interest = media coverage and, hopefully, more users.

So what's Google going to do with the $4.2-billion it plans to raise through a secondary offering. Perhaps it will be jump on the China dot-com bandwagon, buoyed by Baidu's IPO and Yahoo's $1-billion stake in Alibaba.com. Maybe Google will go after Skype and make a major plunge in the fast-growing VOIP market before Rupert Murdoch renews discussions with Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Other options, albeit relatively minor moves - are the acquisitions of an instant-messaging application to play ball with Yahoo and AOL and/or a blog search tool (Technorati?). Or maybe Google is doing what Research in Motion has perfected: raising tons of cash when the stock is high even if you don't really need it. As much as Adsense continues to rumble along, I keep waiting for Google to make a major strategic move. Calling Google a one-trick pony is perhaps a bit of a stretch but am I the only one who believes Google needs another high-growth engine - that is, if you don't count Blogger.com or Gmail as high-growth vehicles.
For an excellent overview on some of the companies that Google has been quietly acquiring recently, check out IP Democracy.

Looks like Videotron is turning up the heat in the telephony market as it rolls out cable telephony service to most of Montreal. So far, the company's biggest growth challenge has been the enough technicians to meet demand. Nevertheless, Videotron has attracted 62,500 customers in the past six months - a big enough dent to capture the attention of Bell Canada. Truth be told, Bell knows it is going to lose customers to cable rivals but for the time being appears content these are low-revenue consumers - rather than high-margin bundle subscribers. Videotron's sucess has clearly been driven by low prices that start at $15.95 if you also buy its cable and high-speed Internet services. For consumers who already have cable and high-speed service, it's a no-brainer moving to Videotron for telephony. It will be interesting to see how much Rogers Communications enjoys as it gets more aggresive selling cable telephony.

Mamma.com - Does anyone find it strange Copernic has agreed to be acquired by Mamma.com just four months after a deal fell apart amid the SEC's formal investigation of Mamma.com. Why does Copernic seem to keen to consummate a transaction? It may be Copernic is struggling even though it has strong search technology that's used by customers such as AOL.

Foreign ownership for Canadian telcos - Apparently, the ever-controversial subject of loosening foreign ownership restrictions is getting yet another look by the federal Ministry of Industry. This is a classic Peter and the Wolf scenario - it has been raised so many times that when it actually materializes, we'll all be caught off-guard. As the lines between telcos and cablecos blurs even more, it will be impossible to change the ownership rules for telcos without applying the same rules to cablecos.

As Labour Day looms on the horizon, we took off for a few days to Sandbanks Provincial Park - one of the most beautiful parts of Ontario - for some camping. The intention, in theory, was to update the blog a little during lulls in the action with a Telus Mobility Audiovox 6600 smartphone. Some early real-world testing showed there was a good wireless connection and the AudioVox Web browser seemed very user-friendly. Only problem was the test unit didn't come with a manual so I somehow left the power on and the battery died. End of camping-blogging experiment; hello back issues of Wired magazine. In any event, the experience showed the difficulty in really getting away these days from the connected world. Of course, there are pros and cons but it takes real will power to turn off the PC, Blackberry, etc. and forget about the outside world.
Perhaps the highlight of the trip was going to the Mustang drive-in in Picton. Talk about taking a real step back in time - a two-screen facility with a converted bus as the ticket office, real butter on the popcorn and funny commentary from the projectionist before the film started. You don't see too many drive-ins around anymore but if you get the chance to go, it's definitely worth it.