Back in October 2005 eBay raised a few eyebrows by paying out $2.6 billion to buy Skype, the internet phone company. Skype is a clever idea and it allows people to make calls across the internet to other Skype users for free. Users can also make cut price calls to mobiles and land lines but the overwhelming majority of Skype’s estimated 405 million users only engage in free user to user calls. There was speculation at the time that eBay had paid over the odds for Skype and sure enough they look set to make a loss on the deal.

Apparently eBay have been trying to offload the company for a while and stated that it had “limited synergies” with their service which makes you wonder why they bought it in the first place. It looks like Skype will be sold to a group of private investors including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and some private equity firms. The price is unknown but according to the New York Times eBay have been looking for $2 billion.

Perhaps you remember the Skypephone. The device is used for free Internet calls and instant messaging. The British carrier 3 is the first one to sell such a mobile. The Skypephone allows free calls for Skype users, but you can’t dial regular numbers like the PC software does. For that you need to use the 3′s voice services. Skype recommends to use its mobile application with unlimited 3G data plans or Wi-Fi to avoid expensive costs.

The Skypephone has the 3 logo engraved below its screen. It is capable to run regular services like any other phone – calls, text messages, mobile web browser and downloading music from 3 MusicStore. Other features are 2-megapixel camera, MPHutchison 3 player, Bluetooth connectivity, 16MB of internal memory expandable through a Micro SD memory card (max 1GB).

“We are optimistic that if you look at one or two years, (we will sell) millions rather than hundreds of thousands, but in the fourth quarter (2007) we are looking at several hundred thousand worldwide,” told Frank Sixt, the finance director of 3-owner Hutchison Whampoa .

The mobile goes for sale on Friday November 2. The retail price will be £49.99 (or $102.6) free of charge. On the other hand if you sign a contract, you will get it free. The company plans to release the Skypephone by the end of the year in Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden.

via Yahoo News