Guess it only took eBay Inc. (EBAY) four years to figure out what the rest of us already knew: that buying Skype for $2.4 billion was a really big mistake.
The online auction giant still hasn’t found a way to integrate Skype into its operations – the 2007 $1.4 billion writedown is a tipoff – and said Tuesday it will spin off the IP telephony company through an IPO next year.
“It's clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal,” said John Donahoe, who’s been eBay’s president and CEO for one year, in a prepared statement. “We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential.”
And even though eBay hasn’t made any headway with Skype, that doesn’t mean Skype is languishing. Quite the opposite, in fact. Skype’s user base has boomed 47 percent since 2007, up to 405 million. The IP telephony service also saw 44 percent growth in its 2008 revenue – reaching $551 million.
Indeed, over the past few days, Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janis Friis have made it clear they’re trying to buy back their company. They reportedly have the private equity firms lined up to help them but the plan remains up in the air in light of eBay’s April 14 announcement.