The New York Times reports that Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have already contacted several private equity firms and are gathering their resources to make eBay a convincing proposal.
Zennstrom and Friis originally sold Skype to eBay back in 2005 for $2.6 billion. Later on, the duo also received significant received bonus payouts that raised to final sales number to $3.1 billion.
According to recent rumors, eBay would be most glad to get rid of Skype, should the company receive a solid offer. The online-auction site seems to admit that its plans for Skype were less than realistic, as the costly purchase has yet to deliver the expected financial results.
Rumor has it that eBay would gladly say “Sold!” to the first bidder offering at least $1.7 billion. That’s $1 billion less than it paid for it in 2005.