If eBay is indeed eyeing Skype, the auction site likely covets the Luxembourg-based company’s technology as a means to strengthen the lines of communication between eBay’s buyers and sellers, Lopez said.īut even that could meet with lukewarm response from eBay users. "A bunch of companies (including Google, Yahoo and MSN) already offer voice as part of instant messaging." "I would be shocked and dismayed if eBay made this move to get into the telephone business," said Maribel Lopez, a telecommunication analyst with Forrester Research. Since it was introduced in 2003, the company’s free software has been downloaded more than 151 million times. Skype has 53 million registered users and the company says more than 2 million people use Skype at any given moment. Calls to landline telephones are also possible at costs that, along with other low-cost Voice over Internet Protocol providers, are creating upheaval in the telecommunications industry. Skype’s free software lets people talk for free over the Internet using computers and microphones. San Jose-based eBay’s stock price fell $1.53 to close at $38.93 Thursday on the Nasdaq stock market after the Wall Street Journal reported that a price of $2 billion to $3 billion was being discussed in acquisition talks.ĮBay and Skype both refused to comment on what they called rumors and speculation. Shares of eBay fell 3.8 percent Thursday after published reports said the Web auction leader was in talks to buy Net telephony phenomenon Skype Technologies, a prospect some analysts found illogical.
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