As Skype chalks up 9 million concurrent users and the company's owner eBay posts a quarterly profit rise of 24 per cent, things are suddenly looking rather sunny in the boardroom.

eBay chief exec Meg Whitman revealed that Skype registered user base tripled last year to 171m, and that Skype revenue topped $66m burst in the fourth quarter of 2006 – 164 per cent up on 2005.

Meanwhile over at eBay, the cyber-auctioneer enjoyed a particularly good Christmas as buyers hunted down elusive Wii and PS3 consoles. UK PS3-hunters have had to import them from Japanese and US eBayers after a component shortage forced Sony to push back the European launch date to late March.