eBay Believes the Skype

Take the Internet, add some communication services and you've got a new growth industry.

At least that's some of the thinking behind the stunning $2.6 billion deal between eBay (EBAY Quote) and Skype. And that's not all.

The concept that the Net is about to turn communications into a hotspot was the motivation behind Yahoo!'s (YHOO Quote) June purchase of Dialpad, and it was the brainstorm behind Google's (GOOG Quote) August decision to introduce GoogleTalk, its call-capable IM. Even Microsoft (MSFT Quote) has gotten into the voice-over-Internet-protocol, or VoIP, game with its buy of Teleo.

If you follow that logic, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to see other giants like Amazon (AMZN Quote) jumping on the Net calling craze soon as well. ...