Waiting for Skype to pay off for eBay - Technology & Media - International Herald Tribune

"But more than a year after the purchase, eBay, one of the world's largest publicly traded Internet companies, is fighting to convince skeptics that the deal, whose final price tag could reach $4.1 billion if bonuses are paid, was indeed a smart move."

"Judging by the numbers, Skype has continued its meteoric rise. The number of registered users, those who have downloaded the free Skype phone software, more than doubled to 136 million by Sept. 30 since the sale to eBay. That is more than half of the world's roughly 206 million broadband Internet users, according to International Data Corp. Each day, 250,000 people download Skype, compared with 130,000 before the sale.
Skype's sales, which are generated mainly from fees when users call or are called from land-line and mobile phones rather than other computers, are set to more than triple this year to $195 million from $60 million in 2005.
With barely any overlap in customers, Skype and eBay are offering new frontiers for each business."