Microsoft 'Stole' Skype From eBay: Elevation's McNamee
By: John Melloy
Microsoft "stole" Skype from Silver Lake Partners and previous owner eBay when it purchased the internet video communication service for just $8.5 billion this May from the private equity firm, according to legendary venture capitalist Roger McNamee.
Silver Lake bought Skype two years ago from eBay for $2 billion.
"They bought the last global, integrated telecom company left for half the value of Sprint ," said the founder of Elevation Partners. "There should be a war crimes trial about that deal."
Microsoft expects the all-cash acquisition, the software giant's largest ever, to get regulatory clearance before the end of the year.
In 2010, Skype had 170 million connected users. More than 207 billion minutes of conversations took place over the service last year.
After the deal, Skype struck a partnership with Facebook to integrate its deal with the social network made up of 750 million users. McNamee, who was a co-founder of Silver Lake, owns a stake in Facebook.
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