For an astronomical amount of money ebay buys skype for $1.3 billion in cash and 32.4 million shares of eBay stock !!! This is almost half our oil exports and about 14% of our total exports in a single year. (via Engadget) All of this for a single peice of software that is 6.5MB of download!

Meanwhile, our friends at Gaim are working hard under the Google summer of code to add NAT traversal and SIP to it. Google also promises that Google talk would be compatible with the gaim SIP implementation. This means that probably the best client to compete with the billion dollar dinasour will be FLOSS. Also the open model will mean the rapid creation of competing clients on many platforms.

Let the IM/VOIP wars begin.

UPDATE: Slashdot reports that the combined value of cash and stocks equals $2.6 billion. I would leave you to do the math.

read more at BBC, reuters says the deal might reach $4.1 billion by 2008. AUP!!!