While eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) said earlier this year that it was planning to spin off Skype in an initial public offering in 2010, it is now being reported that eBay is looking for a buyer willing to pay $2 billion or more for the internet telephone service provider.
Those interested in a buyout may include Andreesen Horowitz and Index Ventures, which were early investors in Skype before its eBay acquisition in 2005. A group of well-known venture capital and large private equity firms are pooling resources to join the bid, according to a source close to the deal.
It's expected that if the investor group is successful in acquiring Skype, it would run the company privately and prepare it for an eventual initial public offering. It isn't clear if current Skype CEO Josh Silverman would continue to lead the company after any acquisition. Under Silverman, Skype grew revenue to $551 million last year, and eBay has said it expects the company to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011.
eBay bought Skype for an estimated $3.3 billion in 2005 in one of the biggest venture capital deals in Europe. Following the deal, Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis established venture capital firm Atomico Ventures, based in London, but they retained ownership in the key technologies of the Skype platform. Zennström and Friis were reportedly in talks with several private equity firms earlier this year to make a bid for Skype.
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