EBay defends purchase of Net phone provider

SAN FRANCISCO — CEO Meg Whitman is battling skepticism over eBay Inc.'s decision to pay at least $2.6 billion for Internet phone provider Skype Technologies SA. Many analysts are questioning both the price tag and the companies' compatibility.

Skype — founded by the creators of Kazaa, the file-sharing program that riled the music business — gives away software that lets people talk for free over the Internet using computers and microphones. A paid version, SkypeOut, allows those calls to be connected to regular phones.

Skype's voice capabilities will speed communication between eBay's buyers and sellers and increase the level of trust, Whitman said in announcing Monday's cash-and-stock acquisition.

Moreover, privately held Skype has attracted a broad international following that eBay hopes to leverage, especially in countries where eBay has little or no presence.

But eBay's buyers and sellers can already communicate via e-mail — 5 million messages a day are sent — and some analysts questioned Whitman's claim that voice communication would be welcomed by sellers.

"EBay is well out of its comfort zone on this one," said Forrester Research analyst Maribel Lopez.

Mark Main, an analyst with the tech firm Ovum, said that he considered the deal "far-fetched" and that eBay had the power to improve its Internet communication abilities much more cheaply.

"EBay could have developed its own sophisticated messaging and communications platform, or even bought one, for far less money than it is paying for Skype," Main said.

Whitman agreed that eBay could have built a similar function.

"But we believe that when a company is out in front of the competition — and you have an opportunity to acquire such a company — it's a great thing to do," Whitman said in a phone interview from London.

She compared Skype to PayPal, the online payment company that eBay bought in 2002 for $1.5 billion. Before buying PayPal, eBay unsuccessfully tried to compete against it with Billpoint, its own payment company.

"We worked hard to build up Billpoint," Whitman said. "In the end, PayPal had the technology lead, they had already built the ecosystem. Skype is in the same position. It has a global footprint and is already a well-known brand."