Ebay is understood to be in early but "active" talks to acquire Skype, the European internet telephony provider. The transaction could be valued at $2-3bn.
Skype, headquartered in Luxembourg, but run out of London, is understood to have hired Morgan Stanley to advise it on strategic options, including a sale, an IPO or another form of capital raising.
A number of other companies, including News Corp, Google and Yahoo have had early talks with the company, but none of these have progressed further. Not surprising given the huge price tag on Skype.
Estimates at Skype's revenues seem to range from around $60m to $100m from the 2m paying customers that they have. That leaves Skype with around 50m free customers. So, I guess the valuation will be based on all these free and paying customers relationships and not a multiple of revenues!!
It seems like were getting back to the heady days of highly valued strategic technology assets. Venture backers in Skype, including Benchmark, must be bouncing off the walls in delight and it all just goes to prove how important internet telephony is becoming. Keep an eye out on one of Skype's big US competitors, Vonage, who looks like they may IPO soon.
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