By mid-2006, it was believed that Skype carried an estimated 7% of all global international voice traffic. Skype continued to break new records and achieve significant growth: the total number of registered users climbed to over 100 million in April 2006 and the number of simultaneous Skype users on-line was propelled to 6 million. Within six months of the announcement, Skype went on to sign co-marketing deals and partnerships with Motorola, Intel, Kodak, Netgear, Panasonic, Philips, and Warner Music Group. The acquisition was completed on 14 October 2005. eBay announced its intention to acquire Skype in a cash and stock transaction totaling US$2.6 billion on 12 September 2005. From Skype''s inception until the company''s acquisition by eBay, the company had secured over US$20 million in venture capital funding, while operating with just over 200 employees. Skype''s registered user growth rate exceeded that of KaZaa, Hotmail, and ICQ over the initial 24-month period after each company launched its product. Within two years of the Skype beta product launch, the software had been downloaded over 205 million times and the user growth rate had climbed to an impressive 130,000 new users per day. Prior to the company''s US$2.6 billion acquisition by eBay, announced in September 2005 and finalized in October 2005, the Skype network had grown to over 55 million registered users. Skype developed software that allowed people around the world to talk to each other for free. Since the company launched its software product in August 2003, the word ''Skype'' has become synonymous with free calls over the Internet.
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