When eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) purchased Skype for over $2.5 billion U.S. dollars years ago, little did it know that price was blown all out of proportion. It's true that Skype is a profitable piece of the eBay empire these days, but to me it still seems like an odd fit. Unlike PayPal, Skype has not become an integral piece of the eBay auction system, where it was intended to get buyers and sellers communicating more in order to facilitate a greater number of successful transactions.

Skype has more then 330 million users across the globe. It has six straight quarters of profitability. What it doesn't have is a return on eBay's investment. Almost everyone agrees that eBay vastly overpaid for Skype, but should eBay just hang on to the company until it gets back as much money as it can, or give it away now (credit: Red Hot Chili Peppers)? It already wrote down the purchase by $900 million. When eBay CEO John Donahoe says that he'll keep Skype, I'm not so sure. If a bid in the area of $500 million came in, my personal thought it that he's change his tune instantly.

Who would buy Skype? A company that probably would not charge for the service, but would support its use with advertising. A famous Mountain View, Ca. company does that now to great success, but the move would have to fit a specific business model. Unlike eBay's "connect the buyer and seller" approach, Skype would also need to move voice calls off the PC and into individual products like WiFi-capable handsets (no PC required) and a slew of other internet-connected devices like, gasp, cellphones. Yes, there are already products that take Skype off the PC, but quality is questionable (after having personally used them). Until there is a suitor that lines up, Skype will sit by and earn a pittance for eBay, but nothing more.