eBay Sells 65% of Skype to Investor Group

Last night it was reported that eBay would likely announce that Skype was to be sold today and it has now done so [PDF]. In a deal that values Skype at $2.75 billion, a group of investors led by Silver Lake and including Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, bought a 65 percent stake in the company for $1.9 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close sometime in the fourth quarter of 2009.

While Skype has been profitable for eBay, generating revenues of $551 million in 2008 and seeing continuous growth, it did not fit in well with eBay’s e-comerce business or with PayPal. Citing this, eBay announced in April that it wanted to launch Skype as a separate company and was planning an IPO for the company in 2010. However, eBay was also considering bids for Skype with “an attractive valuation”. eBay has now accepted the deal put forth by this investor group, which values the company at a greater price than the $2 billion that eBay was looking for.