The New York Times reports that the e-commerce conglomerate, eBay, has announced it will purchase the Internet voice-communication provider Skype for $2.6 billion.  This is just the latest, and probably biggest, acquisition in eBay’s aspirations to grow beyond “just” an auction site.  As the Times writes:

“Communications is at the heart of e-commerce and community,” said Meg Whitman, eBay’s president and chief executive. “By combining the two leading ecommerce franchises, eBay and PayPal, with the leader in Internet voice communications, we will create an extraordinarily powerful environment for business on the net.”