Skype Leads, PayPal Follows

Meg Whitman may have revealed the way Skype can hit some of the financial targets eBay set for it in an interview with Time. Part of eBay's deal with Skype in acquiring the VoIP provider allows for a bonus beyond the $2.6 billion cash and stock deal announced recently. Should Skype hit three unspecified financial targets by 2009, eBay will enrich certain Skype shareholders by as much as $1.5 billion more dollars. How Skype might get there has been a mystery, one that may not be revealed unless it hit those targets and eBay puts that in their SEC filings. But it could be that PayPal, the payment processor acquired by eBay three years ago for $1.5 billion, will be the conduit through which Skype delivers on the deal. ZDNet's Russell Shaw here