In his blog post , Skype president Josh Silverman hails eBay's decision to sell its majority stake in Skype for $2 billion. "Today, Skype begins a new chapter. We're spinning off from eBay to become an independent company once again. This is very exciting news for all of us here at Skype … The new investors will buy approximately 65% of Skype, with eBay continuing to own 35%, in a deal valuing Skype at $2.75 billion US. It means we're back to being a fully independent company again, but with a new group of owners who believe passionately in our mission and in the ability of our team to deliver on it. I can't wait." In its statement, eBay says it's a win-win for both companies.
So much for the spin. But in reality, it's an indictment of eBay's hamfisted handling of the merger. This merger was never going to work because there were no synergies. Skype was always a non-strategic part of eBay's business and it should never have been there in the first place.
True the deal values Skype at $2.75 billion, which is more than anyone expected and certainly more than the $2.1 billion premium-heavy price eBay paid for Skype back in 2005. Despite that, eBay has written down more than $1.4 billion on the acquisition and in April, it announced it would attempt to spin off Skype through an initial public offering next year.
The big question is whether Skype can reinvent itself. As John C Abell points out in Wired, there is a big cloud on the horizon with the UK lawsuit by Skype's founders over a licensing agreement with eBay over Skype's core peer-to-peer communications technology. With eBay still hanging in there with a minority stake, that is still an issue.
Skype might also have a few problems reinventing itself, says Reuters columnist Eric Auchard. The problem, he says, is that Skype's business model is about undercutting the big telephone companies on international calls when those rates are heading down to zero.
"The reality is that – outside of deals with renegade mobile operator 3 – Skype is considered a pariah by most of the world's telephone operators. They hate how Skype's free, or nearly free, calling services undercut prices for their own calling plans,'' Auchard writes. "Despite these hurdles, Skype must find its way into the center of the growing convergence between phones and computers. To succeed, it must mount a challenge to the new communication market leaders – Apple and Google, and even companies such as Twitter. Only then will Skype be able to claim it has defied the odds and become the company to beat once again."
no comment untill now