Om Malik has a scoop about Yahoo possibly buying Dialpad.
What Om missed...first Yahoo's head telecom honcho is Brad Garlinghouse who was the past leader over at DialPad, so the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
While I have yet to talk to anyone associated with the deal here's what I think.
First it provides Yahoo with all the capabilities of Skype that Yahoo didn't have. Dialpad provides Yahoo immediately with a proven platform that delivers least cost routing, the Dialpad engine that routes international traffic and enables termination plus gives them the billing, OSS and capability to make a Pre-Paid offering that terminates and possibly originates PSTN calling. Clearly this means Yahoo is going after the international audience and is looking to go right after Skype. Since Yahoo is already SIP enabled, something Skype isn't this also opens the door for more robust features that could even include Video.
For Dialpad this is a great exit strategy. The company, that was founded in 1999 was largely an arbitrage play both in minutes and with money. That game is about over as the Skype model is gutting the International market. By selling the company and their technology to Yahoo this means the engine plus the Yahoo IM user base, some 65 million plus or so, immediately all have the ability to make and receive real telephone calls.
It also appears to be not as threatening to Verizon and SBC, or even BT, all regional partners with Yahoo, as it can be positioned to compliment and drive more DSL lines which will make up for what is being lost over PSTN. In some cases it will be the second line...
If this is for real, it's a win win....
