ebay pays $2.8 billion for skype

[temi]

auction site eBay has agreed to buy internet telephone company Skype Technologies in a $2.6bn (£1.4bn) deal.
eBay said it would pay half the amount in cash and the other half in stocks to create "an unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine".

Skype's software lets PC users talk to each other for free and make cut-price calls to mobiles and landlines.

full story/source: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4237338.stm

[etechsupport]

eBay could quite easily have developed its own voice service, perhaps they've paid hefty price.

[temi]

ebay is a cash rich company, why not trow some of it around if you have it eh?

[PrivateInvestigator]

their shares went up by 1.5%, so they did get some immediate bonus for the move.

The only downside was the critisism that ebay could have developed the technongy themselves and saved a bandle.

[etechsupport]

Let us see exactly what possible new and unusual ideas eBay will come up.