Technology news and Jobs 
VIRTUALISATION Partial sale of Skype confirmed
VIRTUALISATION Partial sale of Skype confirmed | Partial sale of Skype confirmed |
|
| by Stuart Corner | |
| Wednesday, 02 September 2009 | |
|
Page 1 of 2   
Featured Whitepaper
5 Best Practices for Smartphone Support
eBay president and CEO, John Donahoe, said: "This is a great deal, unlocking both immediate and long-term value for eBay and tremendous potential for Skype ... Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses. As a separate company, we believe that Skype will have the focus required to compete effectively in online voice and video communications and accelerate its growth momentum." Silver Lake is the co-owner (with TPG) of Avaya (and Avaya is the lead bidder to acquire Nortel's enterprise communications business). This has led to speculation that Silver Lake could develop a relationship between Avaya and Skype, enabling Avaya's customer base to leverage free Skype calling services. As one blogger observed "There could certainly be more synergy between Avaya and Skype than eBay and Skype exhibited during the past few years, and this is something that warrants watching in the future." eBay claims that the Skype business has strengthened considerably since early 2008 when Donahoe was named eBay's CEO and hired Josh Silverman to lead Skype. "Silverman has driven strong momentum while building a new management team and delivering a series of Skype innovations such as software upgrades with dramatically improved video and calling quality, the widely popular Skype iPhone app and mobile partnerships with companies such as Nokia and Hutchison." In 2008, Skype generated revenues of $US551 million, a 44 percent increase on 2007, but a small amount compared to eBay's 2008 revenues of $US8.5 billion. Registered Skype users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, a 47 percent increase from 2007. Skype claims to still be attracting "hundreds of thousands of new users each week."
This article first appeared in ExchangeDaily, iTWire's daily newsletter for telecommunications professionals. Register here for your free trial.
 CONTINUED |
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
