The Financial Times reports that Ebay was in the final stages late on Sunday night of sealing an agreement to buy Skype, the fast-growing provider of voice calls over the internet, for more than $2.6bn, according to a person close to the situation.
The deal, which ends a flurry of takeover approaches from other internet and media companies, could cost as much as $4.1bn, if Skype hits certain performance targets between now and 2008.
By integrating Skype with its own software to bring voice calls to its online market, Ebay would be able to ease communications and increase the level of trust between its buyers and sellers, according to the person close to the deal.

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Posted: 09|12|05 at 9:10 am. Filed under: UK News.