EBay finally sells majority of Skype

EBay has offloaded Skype for $2.75bn

Online auction giant eBay has finally completed the sale of its popular Skype internet telephony service, in a deal worth $2.75bn (£1.66bn).

The deal, which was first announced at the beginning of September, will see eBay retain a 30 per cent equity investment in Skype, while the new owners will control the majority 70 per cent stake.

The buyer is an investor group led by Silver Lake, and includes Joltid Limited and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, set up by Netscape founder Marc Andreessen.

Joltid is the company owned by Skype co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, and its inclusion in the group comes as a result of the out-of-court settlement reached after the pair sued eBay over copyright issues regarding Skype's technology.

For its part, eBay will be glad that it has managed to offload the service for slightly more than the $2.6bn (£1.57bn) it paid in 2005, given that the service never fitted into its main business.