eBay to sell Skype in a deal that values it at $2.75 billion

Online auction site eBay purchased internet telephony service Skype for about $4.1 billion in 2005. Today, the company has announced it will sell Skype for about $2 billion. eBay will keep a 35% stake in the company, which values Skype at about $2.75 billion.

Sure, on paper that means that eBay is taking a loss, but honestly, it's still probably a good deal, because as far as anyone can tell, eBay never really figured out what to do with Skype anyway.

Once upon a time there was talking about integrating Skype's VoIP service into the auction site to make communication between buyers and sellers easier. But really, who wants to call a comic book collector halfway around the world to ask questions about that $2.75 first edition Spider-Man #1 comic?

While a number of companies, including Google and Skype's founders, were said to have been interested, it looks like the buyer is an investment group. The deal is expected to go through before the end of the year.

Update: You can read Skype CEO Josh Silverman's brief comments on the deal in the official Skype blog post.

Tags: ebay, news, skype