Facebook Reported to be Buying Skype

Sources say Zuckerberg is talking to Skype about buying out for $3-4 billion.

Padmini Harchandrai|May 05, 2011, 11:47:06 IST

Reports indicate that Facebook might be in talks with Skype to either form a joint venture or buy out the VoIP company completely. Sources say that Mark Zuckerberg is in talks with Skype, for a buyout of between $3-4 billion. However, Skype's IPO, which has been delayed by its current CEO, was expected to raise $1 billion. There are basically two sources close to the matter, giving out this information, one more certain that Facebook is outright buying Skype, and the other that speculates that it's going to be a joint venture.

What's this offspring going to be?

Apparently, Facebook isn't the first company that's been in talks with Skype, Google too has been reported to be in talks with Skype on a "joint venture". However, Facebook and Skype have combined services where Skype users can call in to their Facebook friends, and they can access Skype controls from their Facebook feeds which they can view in Skype itself. Neither party, of course, has said anything on the matter yet.

By Padmini Harchandrai

Paddy does not, we repeat, definitely does NOT belong in the category of Mac-head (yeh right!). She does get excited by her iPhone and her iMac and her iPod Nano and her Macbook and Bali's iPad and her future iHouse (patent pending). Ok, so maybe her head is a little bit forbidden fruit shaped. She likes shooting video (iPhone 4 camera zindabad!) and editing montages (Final Cut Pro zindabad!), whether the scene calls for it or no. In her spare time, she's either kicking it on stage with KB the keyboard or kicking butt at Taekwondo.