eBay strikes a good deal on its Skype sale

Of course, eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said the deal is "great." It could certainly be seen this way as ever since eBay bought Skype for $3 billion in 2005, it has been considered as one of the worst tech deals in recent years. eBay has failed to integrate Skype fully into an echo-system of e-commerce (the marketplace auction business) and online payment system (PayPal) that works to enhance the value of each.

So when Donahoe says "We've acted decisively on a deal that delivers a high valuation, gives us significant cash up-front and lets us retain a meaningful minority stake with talented partners," I'd venture a guess that many investors would agree with that statement.

Now the question is whether Skype can indeed operate well as a separate company and manage to compete and grow better in that area. Obviously, the buyers would like to believe that. Egon Durban, managing director at Silver Lake, said: "Skype is an innovative, next-generation company that has changed how people and businesses communicate with each other." I guess that when you pay over $2 billion for a stake in the company that generated revenues of $551 million in 2008, you'd like to believe that.

Indeed, while the 2008 revenue was a 44% increase compared to 2007, in 2009, revenues are expected to be more than $600 million -- only a 10% growth. The problem is that unlike other growth stories, Skype hasn't really delivered. Perhaps I should say "yet" and it might start showing some of that promise soon as an independent company. I'm not holding my breath.