Techcrunch reports:
After earlier reports that Skype’s founders were trying to buy back the company from eBay, the company has now released the news that it plans to spin off Skype as a separate company and file for an initial public offering. The IPO is intended to be completed in the first half of 2010.
As we reported earlier, eBay has been having trouble finding ways of using Skype across its other products (which CEO John Donahoe admits in a quote from the press release). eBay removed Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom in October 2007, reportedly due to frustration at the financial performance of Skype. Ebay also negotiated down the huge earn-out due to Skype stockholders and took a $936 million one-time loss
around the transaction.
Last year, Skype generated revenues of $551 million, up 44 % from 2007, and eBay recently announced that it expected its subsidiary to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011. Registered users reached 405 million by the end of 2008, up 47 percent from 2007. Skype now accounts for 8 percent of all international calls by one estimate, and that number is going to keep on growing.