[bcn]

Skype (and to a lesser extent meetup and stumbleupon) are pretty good examples, no? However, Most of the acquisitions at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_eBay have made some sense IMO.

[zackattack]

hardly a pattern of behavior or the basis for such a characterization. also although it is no longer under ebay's management i suspect that skype has the possibility to become an incredibly awesome company.