eBay to Sell Off Skype

The internet auctioneer eBay is to spin off its global online telephone business, Skype, through a stockmarket flotation which will end an unhappy four-year relationship between the two companies. eBay announced tonight that it intends to separate Skype through a public offering of shares by the first half of 2010. Based in Luxembourg, Skype has 405m users and its low-cost service accounts for 8% of the world’s international phone calls