ebay + skype ?

according to the rumor mill, ebay is set to acquire luxembourg based skype. and again i'm royally late reporting it. i've long given up trying to get the scoop on things. so instead i intentionally waited a bit longer to see if any interesting news came out in the wake of the scoop. it seemed to have paid off, somewhat.

of course both companies are keeping their mouths shut and have, until now, not given an official response to the rumours. however, the rumour caused ebays share to fall 4%, apparently because investors are concerned "about uncertainty surrounding eBay's strategic reasons for possibly pursuing Skype, as well as any dilution of eBay's shares from an acquisition." the pricetag for the most popular voip provider is estimated to be between $3 billion and $5 billion.

however the founders, zennstrom and friis, are known to be a bit of rebels. their previous venture, the file sharing service kazaa, kicked up some dust as well. yet the duo kept on going their own course and kazaa made it to the most popular p2p service in no time. today, they may be much more interested in a big ipo, but they'll have to create some value for that.

in contrast with my habit, i haven't included any links in this post. it can be partially attributed to laziness, partially to the fact that the news has been pretty much on every tech blog for days. so unless this blog is the only one you're reading (which i sincerely doubt) you'll probably find your way to the lengthy articles for more information.