Is Google going after Skype?

Rumours circling of a sale

4 April 2008 12:28 GMT / By Katie Scott

Rumours are abounding that eBay is looking to offload Skype and Google would be only to happy to step in.

Skype was bought for $3.1 billion in late-2005, but has since not been bringing in the pennies for owner eBay.

Last year, the VoIP service recorded a loss and co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom was pushed in October 2007.

But now online reports that eBay may want to offload the problem and is already in talks with Google about either a partnership or an outright sale.

Details are scant and the Techcrunch is reporting that Skype is keeping schtum and not talking to journalists about the rumours at the CTIA Wireless Conference in Las Vegas.

Google has already launched a VoIP service though GTalk, which is a free 411 service and GrandCentral, a telephone management service it acquired last year for $50 million.