Microsoft will announce later today that it has bought IP telephony business, Skype, for $8.5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The deal means that Skype will cost Microsoft more than three times the valuation its current owners placed on it after they acquired a 70% stake in the company from eBay in 2009. eBay bought Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion with the intention of using its VoIP technology to help buyers and sellers talk to each other.
