eBay, Icahn continue duel over Skype deal

In the latest episode of the ongoing battle between eBay and American investor Carl Icahn, the latter has reportedly lashed out at the online store for their mishandling of Skype deal.

Icahn has demanded an inspection of eBay's records on the acquisition of Skype in 2005.

According to Cnet, eBay bough the service only to divest it in 2009 to an investor group that included Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm.

Icahn has accused Andreessen of a conflict of interest over the deal, challenging his claim that he recuses himself from any board discussions that involve companies backed by his firm.

In his open letter to investors, Icahn wrote that eBay and director Marc Andreessen had thus far refused to adequately clarify the public record, and that's why they were in the process of demanding an inspection of eBay's relevant books and records pursuant to their right as stockholders under Delaware law.

Meanwhile, eBay has rubbished the accusations and defended the sale of Skype and backed Andreessen's role in the deal.

eBay said that the Silver Lake-led consortium, in which Andreessen-Horowitz held only a 3 percent interest, sold their stake of Skype to Microsoft for almost 6 billion dollars, less what they paid for it, for a gain of slightly less than 4 billion dollars for the consortium and the gain also followed the settlement of litigation over Skype, the report added.