eBay, the online auction giant and owner of the popular Skype software has finally sold Skype and the deal is complete. A message on the official Skype blog from company President Josh Silverman reads:
"Great news Рwe"ve closed the deal with the new investors. The investor group is led by Silver Lake, and includes Andreessen Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Joltid Limited and our founders Niklas Zennstr̦m and Janus Friis.
The deal valued Skype at $2.75B US, with eBay retaining approximately 33% of Skype, and the investor group led by Silver Lake controlling the remaining 65%.Our journey continues: say hello to the future!"
eBay originally purchased Skype back in September 2005 for $3.1 billion and struggled to find a way to integrate the popular VOIP service into it"s business model. As the auction giant continued to look for ways to utilize the service with their existing portfolio the value of Skype began to decline.
On September 1, 2009 the company had announced, "Today, Skype begins a new chapter. We"re spinning off from eBay to become an independent company once again". It remains to be seen if the Skype will become a publicly traded company on the stock market or if there will be any significant changes to the business plan now that Skype has new owners.