Wednesday, April 15, 2009

eBay To Spin Out Skype

San Jose-based eBay said Tuesday afternoon that it plans to spin out Skype from the firm, with an initial public offering in the first half of 2010. According to eBay, the spinout comes because the voice-over-IP business has "limited synergies with eBay and PayPal." According to eBay, it spent a year evaluating Skype and potential synergies within eBay, before deciding to spin out the firm. eBay also released revenue numbers for Skype, saying that Skype generated revenues of $551M in 2008, with margns of approximately 21 percent, coming from 405 million registered users. eBay says it expects Skype to have more than $1 billion in revenue in 2011.