Here's who should buy Skype: no, not News Corp
BusinessWeek Online reports that Skype has retained investment banker Morgan Stanley to either take the company public or sell it.
Despite these possibilities, reporter Steve Rosenbush thinks the most likely course for Skype is to conduct an Initial Public Offering and then become a publicly traded company.
A key reason Rosenbush cites for an IPOis that with an estimated valuation of $3 billion, Skype would be too big a gulp for most potential acquirers to swallow.
I don't happen to have $3 billion sitting around right now, but what's $3 billion to any one of several major telcos with international operations and IP telephony goals?
The most logical candidate currently has a U.S. equivalent of a $84.3 billion market cap. And I don't need a spreadsheet to tell me that $3 billion is not hard for an $4.3 billion company to raise.
OK, here's who it is.
If I am a company such as Deutsche Telekom, - a company with major international incumbent telephone company and wireless presence -I'd make Skype an offer they can't refuse. I mean we are talking about an IP Telephony provider with between 43 to 46 percent of all IP Tel minutes; more users than anybody else, a recognizable brand; a functional UI with excellent integrated IM; lots of third party developers and modders.
Deutsche Telekom buying Skype makes way so much more sense than News Corp. Where's the synergy in News Corp Skyping?
What would you like to see happen to/with Skype? IPO? Remain independent? Sell itself? To whom?