EBay, the world's largest internet auction company, has purchased two year old VoIP firm Skype for $4.1 billion - $1.3 billion of the deal will be in cash, $1.3 billion in stocks, and the remainder will be payed by 2009 if the finacial goals have been met. About 40 per cent of investors sold up for a mix of cash and eBay stock, but the remainder have chosen an option that includes future payouts based on performance.

The deal also offers the first glimpse of Skype's financials. It showed revenues of $7 million for 2004 and expects $60 million for this year - the first full year of its paid-for services. Its guidance for 2006 is riding at $200 million revenues.

Rumours of an eBay buy first surfaced last week when a source admitted the two companies were in talks. At that point the deal was thought to be worth anything between $2bn and $5bn, so today's announcement is in the lower end of that range.

Shares were off 4 per cent because of these reports last week, although the markets had yet to open at the time of writing.

Another impact of integrating Skype might be that by making it easier for buyers and sellers to communicate directly it makes it easier to negotiate private sales, take the item of eBay listings and avoid paying eBay fees, which can be substantial on higher value goods.[via geekcoffee and Ubergizmo]