Bill Gates - End of an Era or Beginning of a New One?

Its official, Bill Gates is retiring. David who became Goliath is riding off into the sunset.

Love him or hate him, one thing remains. Bill Gates was a phenom who will never be duplicated. I dont know if the industry would have been the same without Microsoft. Ya Ya, I know they copied everything from Apple, Lotus etc, but so did a lot of people. Wonder where they went.

I think back to the late 80's when Windows was released (the pre-cursor to Windows 3.1). The interface was clugy, programming on it was difficult but it was a big change from what we were using then.. DUMB TERMINALS.

Microsoft made the IT industry global. IBM, HP et all might have been around before Microsoft, but they were far behind Gates who made software a "commodity" available to everyone. Not just big business users.

E-Bay leveraging Skype - At last

Looks like VOIP services and auctioneering just started coming together. E-Bay will start to integrate Skype services into its auctioneering site so that people wanting to buy and see can finally start talking to each other.

This is a first step by E-Bay to start monetizing Skype’s services.

I wonder if this will bring a new paradigm into E-Commerce where Voice/Instant Messaging will become an integral part of doing business and lead to some kind of an "Instant" Marketplace.

Could be exciting.

To Sell or to Hold

There comes a time in an Entrepreneurs life where he or she has to take a call on whether to hold on or sell out.

Most of the time, the opportunity comes in at a time when the business is about to take off. Someone comes in and offers to buy over the company.

You know that if you hold on, the rewards could be greater.

Yet, you feel after all the hard work you have out it, it would be great to cash out, especially a first time entrepreneur, who has spent all his hard earned money on the business. Also who knows what could happen to the market. It could go south. The gut feel I guess is to sell and then hope that in your second inings as a businessman you can afford to take more risks.

But then will you get a second chance?