eBay accquired Skype

Rumors became truth: eBay bought Skype for approximately $2,6 billion with another optional $1,5 billion which will be paid upon reaching predefine goals for Skype. The major idea behind this deal is to integrate the Skype technology to ease the communication between the auction partneres on eBay. With already 54 million users and 150.000 new subscribers per day, Skype is the leading company for VoIP software in over 225 countries.

The combination of eBay’s and Skype’s technology will emerge in a powerful ecommerce and communications engine. After integrating internet shop portals such as Shopping.com or Rent.com, PayPal became a major player for handling eBays online transactions. According to their press-release, a PayPal wallet associated with each Skype account could make it much easier for users to pay for Skype fee-based services, adding to the number of PayPal accounts and increasing payment volume.

I do honestly wonder if this deal will become a problem for anybody who is already using Skype for free – without paying for SkypeOut services…

[via Golem]