Rumors have been swirling about eBay acquiring Skype for a couple of weeks now and it looks like they have now been confirmed based on this post on eBay's website. Additionally, Reuters has reported:
"eBay will pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock and could pay up to an additional $1.5 billion by 2008 or 2009 if financial targets are met - for a potential deal value of up to $4.1 billion."
Skype has over 54 million users and counting and allows users to make voice over IP phone calls for free via your computer. eBay now plans to integrate this technology into their online marketplace allowing new ways to interact with buyers and sellers. I could see adding a "call the seller" link to an online auction allowing eBay users to contact the seller to ask questions about a product being helpful. I am sure eBay has its own ideas of how they want to integrate Skype though. They are already teaming PayPal another eBay company up with Skype to offer users who pay for Skype services with PayPal other Skype incentives. To read more about these PayPal/Skype incentives check out this link.
To try Skype for yourself you will need to download the software here.
