Skype price falls as deal with eBay fails to deliver

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.

The writedown on the value of the deal came as eBay said Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis had resigned as executives, and marks a tacitadmission of lacklustrereturns from Skype since eBay acquired it two years ago.

EBay said it would pay €375 million to Skype shareholders and take a charge of $1.4bn against eBay’s third-quarter results, due out later this month.