Seller’s Remorse? Skype Founders Look to Buy It Back

Apr 11 2009, 2:29pm CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

The New York Times is reporting today that Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are looking to buy back the Internet calling service from eBay, the very same eBay they sold it to for $2.6 billion in 2005.

The duo are apparently meeting with equity firms and pooling their own resources to fiancé the purchase, which analysts believe may hover around $2 billion, according to the Times.

eBay CEO John Donahoe has signaled a willingness to sell Skype for the right price. During an earnings call in January he claimed, “I said from the beginning, I think I said it a year ago, Skype is a great standalone business and that I was uncertain of the synergies between Skype and the other parts of our portfolio," according to transcripts.

Still, there is no denying Skype’s popularity. Skype currently has 405 million registered users, up from 53 million when sold to eBay. Additionally, a popular Skype application for the iPhone launched last month, and plans for a BlackBerry app are apparently in the works.

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Luigi Lugmayr
Luigi is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at ml@i4u.com. Luigi posts regularly on LuigiMe.com about his experience running I4U.