eBay to Sell Most of Skype Stake -- How Unsurprising
Here's an old truism in business: the big majority of mergers and acquisitions never deliver the value they promised. That's not anecdotal, but the finding of one study after another, usually indicating that upwards of three-quarters of M&A activity doesn't deliver to shareholders. So the fact that eBay has announced that it's selling Skype to an investor group for $2.75 billion isn't a surprise, other than as an admission that the deal had never been a good idea.
