The company Skype, owner of the popular Internet telephone service, today announced its intention to go public, according to a statement posted on its website, which clarifies that has not yet determined the number of ordinary shares available for sale or their price. Skype announced it will open a bag, giving a dramatic shift to its VoIP service life of the near-collapse last year when it was part of eBay.
The company has completed the initial registration of its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, says the statement, although it is not yet effective. Banks responsible for coordinating the sale of shares will be some of the biggest names on Wall Street, led by Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, but also participate Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.
Skype plans to get U.S. $ 100 million in an IPO, which would leave the company trading on the Nasdaq in a few months, according to a document sent by the company to the U.S. stock market regulator (the SEC). Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Luxembourg, Skype allows 124 million users around the world to communicate via internet telephony, video and text chats for free, it also allows calls to landlines and mobiles at low cost.
Also, Skype reported that in the first six months of 2010 increased its number of subscribers to 560 million, compared to the 397 milion the same period in 2009. Within a year, used 95 000 million minutes of video calls and voice – though most of them use the free service. Only 8.1 million subscribers pay for the service, and spend on average $ 96 a year, still with the company being profitable.
On the other hand, in this period, the carrier posted a net profit of $ 13.1 million (9.9 million euros), representing a decrease of 41.8% over the same period of 2009, although its turnover increased 25% to 406.1 million dollars (307 million euros). eBay closed in November 2009 an agreement with an investor group led by Silver Lake to sell 56% of Skype, eBay retained ownership while 30% of the operator and the founders of the company controlled the remaining 14%.