02 October 2007
eBay is cutting more than a third of the price it agreed to pay for Skype VoIP service.
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc said on Monday
it would cut as much as $1.2 billion off the $4.3 billion
potential price it agreed to pay for Web-based phone-calling
service Skype two years ago.
The writedown on the value of the deal came as eBay said
Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis had resigned
as executives, and marks a tacit admission of lackluster
returns from Skype since eBay acquired it two years ago.
EBay said in a U.S. regulatory filing on Monday it would
pay Zennstrom, Friis and other Skype shareholders 375 million
euros ($530 million) and take a charge of $1.4 billion against
eBay's third-quarter results, due out later this month.