After weeks of speculation about eBay going to acquire Skype, eBay sealed the deal on Monday, September 12, 2005, by paying Skype for USD$2.6 billion in cash ans stock. This deal may go up to USD$4.1billion based on performance-based bonuses within 2005-2009.

When both leaders in auction business and Voice-over-IP communication industry met, certainly there will be some spark in the business itself. From the acquisition, eBay is almost certain to benefit from the free Skype calls which will smoothen the way for more deals to go through. Furthermore, auction fraud can be kept to minimal as most of the buyers will request for a talk or so to the seller through Skype. That’s for sure, eBay will leverage the current 54 million members in 225 countries and territories and at the growth rate of 150,000 users per day.

Of course, needless to say, Skype will have pocketed the total amount of the acquisition, which believed to be 42 times of Skype’s expected 2005 earnings of USD$60 million. With these money, hopefully, we will see more innovative services will be launched by Skype.

Other than using Skype in eBay.com, the VoIP technology will be integrated in other websites under eBay as well.

Quoted:
The technology will be integrated across eBay’s numerous sites, including Shopping.com, Rent.com, Marktplaats.nl and Kijiji. Since the Skype technology is already used within markets that the eBay auction technology is not, Skype will be used to promote the other eBay services in markets like Japan and Russia, executives said.