eBay retailer new Skype chief

eBay has stayed in-house, selecting Shopper.com chief Josh Silverman as new CEO of Skype. Silverman's appointment comes after a six month search for a leader for the VoIP leader which boasts enormous usage--but is still struggling to find a viable business model.

Before joining eBay Silverman founded the Evite invitation service, but comes with no telecoms or messaging experience and this week announced he was off to Skype's Estonia technology center to "learn everything he can" about the business. He is expected to be based in London.

Industry analysts have been pushing for eBay to sell Skype, after it was forced to take a $1.4 billion write off from its $2.6 billion purchase price. Promises of being able to integrate Skype into eBay's market place and PayPal business has proven not to be. There has been recent growth in top line revenue, but much of this has come from Euro currency appreciation, with average revenue contribution actually falling last quarter. Skype's founders left mid-last year and the big VoIP player is fast being challenged by a gaggle of other providers, some offering interoperability and all promising what Skype does, cheap calling. At the same time eBay has seemed clueless about what to do with Skype, something which will be on the top of Silverman's to-do list.

For more:
Skype CEO announcement [1]
Did Skype Appoint The Wrong CEO? Blog [2]

Related articles:
Skype struggles to find real revenue Article [3]
eBay earnings; Whitman retires Article [4]
Skype resists inter-operability Article [5]
3 continues to expand mobile Skype coverage Article [6]