With Skype, eBay intends to reduce friction in online auction services even more by allowing people to talk through sales that would be too complex to communicate via e-mail or instant messaging, she said.īut some analysts warn that real-time communications could hinder rather than enhance online auction sales. 'We have already tried to reduce friction in e-commerce,' Whitman said, referring to the acquisition of PayPal as a means to make it easier and more safer for customers to pay for online purchases. Sellers, too, will benefit by being able to build relationships with customers and closing deals, it said. Buyers will gain an easy and quick way to talk to sellers and receive the information they need to buy items. 'I'm convinced that over time pretty much all voice communication will be over the Internet.Both Zennström and Friis will assume positions within eBay's executive team, said eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman, in a conference call.īy acquiring Skype, eBay hopes to improve communications between buyers and sellers by allowing them to speak with one another, according to a statement. Zennstroem said he saw growth possibilities in facilitating such services as live on-line translation.

'We had meetings with a lot of companies. Zennstroem confirmed that he had talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. They'll nourish it and allow it to grow.' 'They don't want to disintegrate the company. Zennstroem, referring to the on-line payment company eBay bought in 2002. 'EBay had a good record, especially with PayPal,' said Mr. Zennstroem said he had thought long and hard about the sale to eBay and had talked to other potential buyers as well as considering an initial public offering before plumping for eBay, which promised Skype the most autonomy.

It now has 54 million users.ĮBay is paying $2.5-billion plus another possible $1.4-billion if certain targets are met for Skype, which will allow it to add free Web telephone calls to its on-line auctions, smoothing the way for more deals to go through. The company has quadrupled in size over the past year and is adding 150,000 users a day. It charges for calls made from or to numbers outside the network. Luxembourg-based Skype offers free computer-to-computer calls between Skype users.

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