Skype

By CIO New Zealand staff | Monday, January 11 2010

EBay, which acquired the company in 2005, says Skype is no longer its core business and sold 65 per cent of its stake for $1.9 billion cash in early September to Silver Lake, a group of technology investors.

Global HQ: Luxembourg
Website: www.skype.com
Global leader: Josh Silverman, president
Local leader: Chris Lewis, head of strategy and new business, Asia
Core activity: Internet telephony
Revenue: US$550 million (FY07-08 ended December 31)
Key customers: Anyone with access to broadband
Employees: Undisclosed

EBay, which acquired the company in 2005, says Skype is no longer its core business and sold 65 per cent of its stake for $1.9 billion cash in early September to Silver Lake, a group of technology investors. The New York Times says its sale to private investors will allow Skype to go back into “start-up mode” and frees it from “the shackles that limited its growth and potential as a unit of eBay”. While Skype has revolutionised global communications through bypassing the old telephone system for voice, instant messaging and even video calls over the internet, ongoing legal battles are threatening its future.

EBay is in a licensing dispute with Swedish-based Joltid, the owner of the software that powers the internet-based phone service. It is developing alternative software in case the company loses the right to use the technology when the case goes to court in 2010. That uncertainty has to be a concern for the 400 million-plus global users of the “free” software, a third of them businesses. Skype revenues are now growing about 25 per cent a quarter after big losses in 2007. Keith Newman