15 Largest Internet Acquisitions Ever

8. eBay buys Skype
Sale Price: $2.6 Billion
Year: 2005

Skype was first released in 2003 written by Estonian developers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn, who had also originally developed Kazaa.

eBay was ahead of the game when it acquired Skype in 2005 for a surprising $2.6 billion. By 2009, the VoIP and video calling service was making appearances on ‘Oprah’ and ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’. That same year, eBay sold a majority stake in the company to an investment consortium at a profit. In 2011, Skype was sold again to Microsoft for a whopping $8.5 billion.

7. Google buys Double Click
Sale Price: $3.1 Billion
Year: 2008

DoubleClick was founded as one of the earliest known Application Service Provider (ASP) for internet "ad-serving", primarily banner ads.

In 2008, the Google ponied up $3.1 billion to further its dominance of the online ad realm with the acquisition of DoubleClick - an ad-serving firm with a powerful client list. The price was reportedly driven upward by a bidding war with Microsoft.

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