I guess we should call the month of September the “seller’s month”. News about Walt Disney’s deal on Marvel Entertainment hasn’t gone off the board when we receive the latest deal: Ebay sells Skype to a group of private investors.
Skype is a leading software manufacturer that lets users make free voice calls over the internet (similar with voice chat on Yahoo messenger). On 2005, Online Auction giant Ebay acquired Skype for a hefty price of US$2.6 billion and has since written down its value to just $1.7 billion.
Yesterday, 65% of Skype was bought by a group of private investors including Silver Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board for a US$1.9 billion “cold” cash along with a note for US$125 million.
Why sell now?
Ebay, who now controls only 35% of Skype’s shares, decided to cash out Skype because it isn’t “complimentary” with their auction services. If you remember this was the same statement the Auction giant said when it decided to sell Stumbleupon on April 2009. Quoting Ebay CEO John Donahoe on selling Skype,
“Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses.”
Among its auction services, Ebay also controls Paypal (making online payments a breeze). However, even big and established as it is right now, it sounds like Ebay excecutives were making a “mess” on choosing the right “mix” for their business. Or maybe, they are experiencing any cash trouble lately? maybe not. Anyhow, the transaction seems like a “relief” for Ebay because it still has 35% ownership of Skype, which means it could still reap future profits without the burden of taking care its “uncomplimentary” operations. (source: mashable)
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Tags: Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board, cash out, ebay, Index Ventures, purchase, sells, Silver Lake, skype, sold
