Sale of Skype won’t stop eBay from launching an IPO in 2010
It seems that the selling 65 percent of Skype won’t stop eBay from launching shares of common stock for the service next year.
After the news yesterday that eBay had sold off 65 percent of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service Skype, it seemed unlikely that the auction house would still offer the long-rumored Initial Public Offering (IPO) of common stock from the 35 percent retained. Well, now it seems that assumption would be wrong as that is exactly what eBay plans to do sometime in 2010.
According to AHN, eBay will offer up 57.3 million shares of common stocks, which had an aggregate value as of Aug. 5, 2009 of $171 million, as early as April 2010. No details were provided as to what percentage of the company that would equal, nor was there any comment if it would come only from eBay’s remaining 35 percent, the 65 percent that was purchased, or if it would be split equally from both sides.
Skype had $551 million in revenue in 2008 off of 405 million users, and eBay projects the revenue to top $1 billion annually by 2011. These current numbers, in addition to the projected future revenues, has made the $2.75 billion that was paid for 65 percent by Silver Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board seem like a wise investment by the parties involved.
While Skype has enjoyed dominance of the VoIP space on the Internet, it has had some stumbling blocks getting on to cell phones around the world. While UK mobile company 3 has completely embraced Skype for some time now, phone companies in the United States have been hesitant because of the possible competition it would give to the plans they offer. More and more companies seem to be warming up to the concept, but it has been a slow process. There are currently official applications for Windows Mobile and the iPhone, and Skype Lite applications for Android, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Erricson handsets. If Skype is able to finally crack the mobile landscape in a bigger way, you could potentially see those revenue projections jump significantly higher.
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September 14th, 2009
Skype will do well,to state the lest,if the Company chooses to go will its’ plan 2010 ipo,in April.
I state this for the following reasons. Skype is not only profitable;but,has been,for quite a while. Skype’s product is THE world’s leader in voip. Also,this company is being led by some of the brightest minds in the tech world.
In closing,as long as Skype continues in the right direction of being a great high tech company,it will join the short list of companies,with goofy names like Microsoft,Oracle,Apple,Amazon,and Google.