Ebay agrees private sale of Skype
Ebay is to sell Skype, its internet telephony arm, to a group of private investors, according to reports.
The online auction giant, which bought Skype for $2.6bn (£1.6bn) in October 2005, is understood to have agreed an undisclosed deal with a consortium that includes Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen.
Ebay revealed it was looking to offload Skype in April, writing the value of the company down to approximately $1.7bn (£1.03bn).
In July Ebay posted a 29% decline in profits over the second quarter, although the addition of 37.3m registered Skype users over the period helped offset an overall drop in sales (nma 23 July 2009).
However, despite the growth in user figures – the total now exceeds 405m – the majority still use Skype’s free service.
July also saw Skype appoint former O2 marketing director Russ Shaw as general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (nma 16 July 2009) to boost take-up across the region, with a focus on the premium services.
This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk
