Google (GOOG) reportedly expressed interest, but ultimately bowed out for fear of alienating its wireless partners. Although eBay faltered on its grandiose plans for the service, Skype’s popularity (if not its profits) continued to grow under that company’s ownership, and the bidding in was competitive. Those investors included Silver Lake Partners, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Few did, and four money-losing years later, eBay, having never integrated the service into its auction business, sold 70 percent of Skype to a group of private investors for $2.75 billion. The idea was for buyers and sellers on eBay’s online auction service to communicate with each other over Skype. In 2005, eBay (EBAY) bought Skype for $2.6 billion. Skype was founded in 2003 by a couple of software writers, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friiswhose, whose previous gig was owning Kazaa, a file-sharing service mostly associated with music and movie piracy.
Through it all, its valuation has continued to grow, with the largest leap coming Tuesday with Microsoft’s (MSFT) announcement that it would pay $8.5 billion in cash and assumed debt for the company. Also striking is the eye-popping level of debt Skype has accumulated over its life: $686 million.īetween the many investments in, offers for, and outright sales of Skype, the company stands among the most slatternly of big technology companies. Given the premium price Microsoft is paying for Skype, it’s striking that the Internet phone company has spent so much of its short life being passed around like a cheap bottle of holiday wine.
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