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Article: EBay sells 65% of Skype to investor group for $2b.
- Article from:
- The Online Reporter
- Article date:
- September 4, 2009
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EBay has agreed to sell 65% of Skype for almost $2 billion to a group of investors led by Silver Lake. The investors paid $1.9 billion in cash, which includes a loan from eBay of $125 million.
EBay has been criticized for both the acquisition and operation of Skype. For example, then CEO Meg Whitman said the justification for buying Skype was to integrate Internet telephony into eBay's bidding technology so buyer and seller could establish voice communications with each other. It never did. Current CEO John Donahoe says Skype doesn't fit eBay's other operations.
EBay said it wants to focus on its sagging e-commerce operations where it increasingly has to ...