Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

BREAKING: eBay Inc. Announces Plan for 2010 IPO of Skype

eBay Inc. has announced that it plans to separate Skype from the company, beginning with an initial public offering that is intended to be completed in the first half of 2010.

“Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum,” said John Donahoe, eBay Inc.’s President and CEO. “But it’s clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal. We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications. In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines—ecommerce and online payments—and deliver long-term value to our stockholders.”

According to the press release, the decision to separate Skype is based on a timeline outlined by Donahoe when he became eBay’s CEO in April 2008. At the time, the company said it would spend a year evaluating Skype and its potential synergies within the eBay Inc. portfolio before making any decisions about Skype’s future.

Skype generated revenues of $551 million last year, a 44% increase from 2007. Registered users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, a 47% increase from the year before. The company recently announced that it expects Skype to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011, nearly doubling 2008 revenues.

Remember to please visit http://ebayinkblog.com/legal/ if you have any questions regarding forward looking statements in this blog post.

Cheers,
RBH

Tagged: ebay, ebay inc, ebay portfolio, ebay roadmap, Finance, IPO, Public Offering, Skype

(6) Comments

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C.C. ChapmanOn April 14, 2009 at 1:53 pm Said:

Wow, this is huge news and I hope that through the sale they raise enough money to take Skype to the next level. I’m still not sure how I’d run my business without Skype but if I could get more then one on one video going I’d be psyched.

Thanks for the heads up.

Taylor MarekOn April 14, 2009 at 1:58 pm Said:

Thanks for that info. Never understood why Skype was bought out in the first place, they seem to be doing fine on their own. :)

Jonathan OakleyOn April 14, 2009 at 2:01 pm Said:

It’s clear that a big area of growth for Skype will be in apps for phones such as the iPhone, especially when traveling abroad to save on the roaming cost. I struggled to see the synergy between the companies to start with, the only crossover being the option to phone the seller, which I’ve personally never used anyway, it will be interesting to see how they perform as a standalone company again!

Danna CrawfordOn April 15, 2009 at 3:35 am Said:

As much as Oprah uses and promotes skype I do hope the new avenue will only prosper eBay preventing employee layoffs as much as possible.
BTW I love your blog!

TKOn April 16, 2009 at 8:35 pm Said:

Could someone please confirm who owns Ebay? I have asked in several places and no one seems to know. I have been told Sony, Google and some other companies I never heard of. I thought Ebay was it’s own and was not owned by anyone but no one seems to know.
Thank you!