After much speculation, Josh Silverman of Skype has announced the Internet telephony company’s sale to a private investment group. This is seen as a positive move for fans (like me) of Skype’s service.

Back in 2005, Skype was sold to internet auctioneer eBay. At the time, industry analysts and bloggers doubted the deal, not seeing any synergy between Skype’s VoIP product and eBay’s Internet auction business. As time rolled down, it appears eBay saw error in their acquisition as well. Earlier this year, eBay was believed to be going down a path to separate Skype into it’s own company and offer an IPO, but with today’s news, this can be officially discounted.

In an announcement posted this morning, Josh Silverman expressed excitement over the new arrangement, whereby an investment group will own 65% of Skype and eBay will retain a 35% ownership. Under the deals of today’s deal, Skype is valued at US $2.75 Billion – a healthy number for the Internet telephony company.

Amongst the new owners in the venture capital group are Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. This is good news as these two gentlemen are visionaries in the Internet space and will provide quality leadership to steward Skype in its new existence as an independent company.