Fresh off of my post from last week regarding Skype and how it might emerge as the winner in the “web 2.0” universe came the fairly big news that eBay is spinning off the company into an independent company. The company hopes to launch an initial public offering in early 2010 depending on market conditions.
eBay stated that they believe Skype will generate $1 billion dollars in revenue or more in 2011. They are looking for revenue growth primarily in subscription dollars and additions in terms of SMS texting, call forwarding, etc. Apparently they anticipate some enterprise growth but it remains to be seen if they will generate growth there.
One of the big question marks that remains is a pending lawsuit between the Skype founders and eBay. They are arguing over some proprietary technology that the Skype founders retain ownership of through a company they own called Joltd. This is a huge issue going forward and one that has not generated a significant amount of press despite the danger that it poses to a Skype IPO and Skype’s business as they attempt to be an ongoing concern.
As I wrote before the biggest problem for Skype in terms of enterprise messaging is they still have issues with encryption and security – as well as control of the network. That is why Brosix Enterprise Messaging is the best for business, even as I love Skype. Check it out over at http://www.brosix.com.