it’s been a long time coming, but online auction giant Ebay has inked a deal (PDF) to sell of 65 percent of its VoIP operation Skype for $1.9 billion in cash. The buyers are a group of technology investment houses led by Silver Lake, with investors including Andreeson Horowitz (a new venture capital firm from Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen), Index Ventures, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The deal values Skype at about $2.75 billion; eBay will retain a 35 percent share of the company.
