EBay 'to sell Skype to private investors'

Internet auction and services company EBay Inc has reached a deal to sell its online telephony unit Skype to a group of private investors, the New York Times said, citing two people briefed on its plans.

Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm headed by the Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, is likely to be among the investors in the group, the paper cited the people as saying.

London-based Index Ventures and Silver Lake Partners may also be involved in the deal, one of the people told the paper.

The paper added that the value of the deal, which is likely to be announced later on Tuesday, had not been disclosed.

EBay spokesman Alan Marks declined to comment on the report.

In May, EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe said a valuation of $2 billion would be low for Skype.