Skype Sale Reported to be Announced Tomorrow
Update: This news is now official.
Online telephony service Skype will be sold by eBay to a group of private investors, possibly including Netscape founder Marc Andreessen's new venture capital group, and the deal will be announced on Tuesday according to a report by a team of reporters from the New York Times.
EBay faces legal challenges from Skype's founders that the company said earlier this summer could mean the end of Skype as we know it. From an innovation perspective, we're always excited when such an interesting company breaks free from a slow-moving monolith that acquired it.
Skype's founders were rumored to be interested in buying the company back themselves, but the Times reports that they were unable to raise enough money to satisfy eBay.
If the Times report is accurate it will be very interesting to see who runs the new Skype and what kinds of changes are made to the service. With $600 million in reported annual revenue and nearly twice as many users as Facebook, Skype's international network of P2P software installs powering multimedia communication, file-sharing, chat and status still has boundless potential to do interesting things.
Update: PaidContent's coverage points out that TechCrunch broke this story three days ago.
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Not to be old-school about this or anything but can someone remind me what Skype's net profits have been for the past three years so we can make a fair market valuation.
Concerning Skype's profit: this might be hard to tell, as the indirect costs aren't itemized sufficiently imho. Last Quarter, the communications segment reported a net revenue of ~ USD 170MM and direct costs of net revenue of around USD 80MM, i didn't find the itemized indirect costs of net revenue for the communications segment. (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065088/000119312509157212/d10q.htm). So ... they seem to earn money, but you can't tell from the published data what amount exactly.
Sound cool to me. I have been using Skype, and I really appreciate the free Skype to Skype calls. I have a family abroad and I thank Skype because it helps me get closer with my family. If selling Skype will benefit everybody, then this is one great news.
Good Job Ebay...
I can see why they should be upset, aren’t they new loosing sales or clients over this???
For those of us that have family on the other side of the world Skype is a god send. Long may this free service remain.
I didn't even know eBay owned Skype.
Skype Sale Reported to Be Announced Tomorrow http://bit.ly/tzAs7 <--hot breaking news there! [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/3683035527]
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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September 1, 2009 5:41 PM
Sound cool to me. I have been using Skype, and I really appreciate the free Skype to Skype calls. I have a family abroad and I thank Skype because it helps me get closer with my family. If selling Skype will benefit everybody, then this is one great news.