• Forbes.com, Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:01 PM

EBay has finally admitted that it has no way of integrating Skype, the Voice Over Internet Protocol provider, into its ecommerce business. The online auctioneer bought Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005, promising that the Internet calling company would help users buy and sell goods.

As it turns out, "We were wrong," eBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said Wednesday during a meeting with analysts and investors. "We thought it would reduce friction in commerce and payments." And yet, despite admitting that this was a misguided acquisition, eBay wasn't shy about talking up Skype's prospects as a stand-alone business.

In fact, Forbes writer Brian Caulfield says the Internet telephony startup is starting to look a lot like the eBay of ten years ago. Skype, he says, is "a fast-growing business that threatens to turn the communications industry inside out, much like eBay's online auctions did with retail more than a decade ago." According to Skype CEO Josh Silverman, the company is adding new users at a rate of 350,000 per day, and it already accounts for an estimated 8% of the world's international calling. Last year, Skype reeled in $550 million in revenue, and despite currency fluctuations, its growth rate is accelerating, Silverman says. Meanwhile, Caulfield notes that parent eBay "could use a good growth story right now."

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