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"Jemima Kiss has floated a rumor that Google may be in talks to acquire Skype from eBay.  While it sounds mostly like pure speculation right now, such a deal would make sense for both companies in a number of ways.\nWhile Skype is still growing strong and eBay\u2019s CEO Meg Whitman recently said that the company would continue to invest in the unit, shareholders might have had enough after the $1.39 billion write-down from the acquisition.  Further, two years later, there still does not appear to be any great synergy between eBay and Skype.\nMeanwhile, Google has made its intentions to be a major player in wireless very clear.  Aside from launching Android, its mobile operating system, the company is prepared to bid billions to acquire wireless spectrum around the world.  Skype has recently launched its own mobile phones, allowing users to make VoIP calls on the go.  With tens of millions of Skype users, this becomes a potentially enormous base for Android to take hold.\nWith the worst behind it, eBay can afford to keep Skype in its stable for the time being.  However, with other questionable acquisitions such as Stumble Upon earlier this year, the company is starting to look more like a holding company than an e-commerce giant, which doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense for shareholders.  Meanwhile, with a market cap nearly 5x that of eBay, taking Skype off of eBay\u2019s hands would be a relatively small deal for Google.  \n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/11/19/google-skype/>