When eBay (EBAY) bought Skype Technologies for $2.6 billion in late 2005, few could fathom why the online auction company saw so much in a money-losing Internet phone service. Two years later, eBay is admitting it made a mistake.

On Oct. 1, eBay confirmed that it overpaid for Skype—by nearly $1 billion—and that the popular Web-calling business has not performed up to the rosy forecasts set back in 2005. In announcing a $1.43 billion charge against profits, eBay also revealed a broad management reshuffle in which Skype co-founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis will be leaving their posts.

About a half-billion dollars of the charge is for a payment to Zennström, Friis, and other early Skype investors. Although it might sound like a plump farewell present, that payout is well short of the $1.7 billion those shareholders stood to receive from eBay if Skype had met the targets for users, revenue, and profits set in the 2005 buyout agreement.

Considering Skype's rapid growth since the acquisition, it can't be an encouraging sign that its founders and early investors are cashing out well before the clock has run out on the original performance goals. When eBay bought Skype, it agreed to pay Skype shareholders as much as $1.7 billion extra if Skype met certain user growth and financial targets in 2008 and 2009. In accepting $530 million, those investors agreed to forgo any future payments, suggesting that none were likely. eBay plans to record that payment, plus $900 million more, as an impairment charge recorded in the third quarter.