Today's Newsweek has a piece on eBay and Skype, noting that this week "At its annual 'eBay Live' convention, the company will announce plans to integrate Skype into its U.S. marketplace for the first time. Sellers can choose to include Skype buttons in their auctions for a few carefully chosen product categories, such as cars, real estate and diamond solitaire rings."

The article begins with an optimistic anecdote suggesting that adding Skype functionality improves the results of big-ticket item sales--although the article also cautions that introducing direct voice connections raises new possibilities for buyers and sellers to conclude their transaction off eBay and avoid fees.  Meg Whitman repeats that she sees the big pay-off in the Skype acquisition as synergies with eBay and PayPal.

Continue reading Can eBay make Skype pay off?

Can eBay make Skype pay off? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.