In a couple of years, the time parked in eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) may be a distant memory for a publicly traded Skype. The VoIP firm has filed for an IPO with the SEC, looking to raise $100 million in what could become one of the world’s biggest online telcos.
No price has yet been set. The IPO would be coordinated by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, together with a host of other banks, and managed by Lazard, RBC and UBS.
— It pulled $406.2 million in sales during this year’s first half – 25.1 percent more than last year – but, after expenses etc., clocked net income of $13.1 million.
— From last January until eBay sold the majority of Skype in November 2009, the service did $626.5 million in sales, but recorded a net loss of $269 million.
— It wants to grow its consumer business “by improving awareness and adoption of our paid products and introducing premium products such as group video calling”, and by adding new revenue streams like “marketing services (such as advertising) and licensing”.
— It’s aiming for the enterprise market under the Skype for Business banner.
Skype says: “It is our goal to continue to grow both our connected and paying users as Internet access proliferates globally and our penetration increases.
“We believe the scale, global distribution and growth of our user base provide us with powerful network effects, whereby Skype becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby creating an incentive for existing users to encourage new users to join….
“We believe our business is also characterized by low operating and capital expenditures as a result of the strong network effects that help us grow our user base, our strong communications brand, which we have built despite low levels of marketing spending, and the low-cost peer-to-peer architecture that does not require us to build or maintain a network.”