MICROSOFT has agreed to buy internet telephone service Skype for $8.5 billion (€5.9bn) in the biggest deal in the software maker’s 36-year history.

Microsoft has agreed to buy the internet telephone service Skype for $8.5bn (€5.9bn) in the biggest deal in the software company’s 36-year history.

A company owned by the founders of Skype has filed a copyright infringement suit against the internet phone service and parent eBay – an action that could scupper eBay’s plans to sell Skype for about $2bn (€1.35bn) to a group of private investors.

ONLINE auction giant eBay has said it would cut as much as $1.2 billion off the $4.3bn potential price it agreed to pay for web-based phone-calling service Skype two years ago.

Millions of Skype users were unable to use the popular internet phone call program for two days because of an abnormally high number of restarts after a routine software update, the company said today.