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Archive for October 23rd, 2009

BREAKING: eBay to Announce Deal to Sell Skype

Posted by admin On October - 23 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

The fate of eBay-owned Skype has been in question for months now. Back in April, it looked as if eBay was going to spin-off the VoIP service as a publicly traded company. Now we’ve learned that Skype will be sold to private investors.

According to the New York Times, eBay will announce a deal tomorrow that will send the popular Internet telephone service to an investment group. It seems as if the group includes the newly formed Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, co-founded by Netscape’s founder Marc Andreessen. The deal terms are not yet disclosed.

This deal comes during a very public battle between eBay and the founders of Skype, who are threatening to cut off one of the key peer-to-peer technologies that power Skypeand have expressed interest in rebuying their company. It’s even possible they are also part of the sale – we just don’t know yet.

We’ll bring you more information as it develops.

Update: Others involved in the deal include Index Ventures (London venture capital firm, early Skype investor) and Silver Lake Partners (private equity firm).

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