Skype for sale? (Again)

Talk about Skype going up for sale tends to come and go, with the latest round of speculation being stirred by the Times of London and a CNET follow-up blog piece.

"Industry insiders" believe that eBay CEO John Donahue has signed its intention to unload Skype after describing it as a "great stand-alone business." Since eBay didn't do so well in the fourth quarter, and Skype really doesn't have any "synergies" with the rest of the eBay portfolio, Donahue said eBay will continue to run and operate the business since it isn't a "distraction currently."

The comments re-ignited speculation that eBay will sell off Skype for cash to refocus on its core auction business, speculation that started last year when eBay had to write $1.4 billion off the books two years after its $2.6 billion purchase of Skype.

However, such speculation needs to be balanced by the whispered desire that eBay wants crazy money - billions in cash - to buy the firm. Since Skype generated around $500 million in revenue last year and continues to grow, a purchase price at 3 to 4 times revenues would translate to around $1.5 to 2 billion. 

Going through the list of suspects, the only people who might want/could afford Skype are Google and Microsoft, with Cisco as a long shot. Microsoft is cited because it would be able to buy 370 million new users and Internet mindshare, while Cisco is considered a possibility because it would give the hardware giant another services business to add to the portfolio.

Looking at the laundry list, this reporter feels that if Google wanted Skype, it would have eaten it a long time ago. Microsoft is, frankly, crazy talk because it is currently dealing with its own budget woes and the aborted Yahoo deal has likely left a bad taste in the executive boardroom. John Chambers is enough of a contrarian to consider buying Skype, but Cisco is pushing into a lot of different fronts at the moment as it plans to pillage market share in the consumer and video spaces, as well as its traditional network core hardware space.

For more:
- The Times spins up Skype sale talk. Article.
- CNET throws fuel on the fire. Blog.

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