eBay Soaring On Skype Deal (MSFT, EBAY)

Obviously by now, everyone knows that Microsoft

has

for a whopping $8.5 billion. Microsoft said it will use Skype's functionality in the Xbox game console, Outlook email program and Windows smartphones, and will continue to be supported on other platforms. In addition to the private equity firms Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz, Skype's other major shareholders are Joltid and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. And oh yeah, this little company called eBay

. eBay shares are popping in pre-market on the deal, as it still owns 30% of the company. When Meg Whitman bought Skype for $2.6 billion a few years ago, people laughed at her. The San Jose-based company eventually sold the majority of the company, and took a write down on the investment it had in Skype. Now, eBay is made whole again, and it has a nice tidy profit, thanks to the boys and girls in Redmond, WA. At last check, shares of eBay were up 3.7% to $34.15, a gain of $1.23 on more than 600,000 shares so far. Not bad, eh?