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Skype Files For IPO
helix2301 writes with news that Skype has filed plans with the SEC for an initial public offering. From TechCrunch:
"According to the filing, Skype's revenues for the first six months of 2010 were $406 million, with a net income of only $13 million. But a big portion of that was from interest income. That is only a 3 percent net margin, and this isn't exactly a new business. Its income from operations was only $1.4 million for the six months. However, its gross margins are 51 percent, and have been expanding steadily as the company benefits from the scale of is operations and is able to negotiate lower telephone termination fees around the world."
Skype to distribute protocol based on millisecond trades of own stock, Voice Over IPO.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
I'm a long-time Skype user, and while it isn't my favorite application, it certainly works, and connects me to people around the world (for work). Good luck, Skype. I do hope this brings plenty of improvements and functionality. If not, we'll use something else!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Be prepared for an increase in tariffs and other hidden fees.
There are exactly 2 reasons for a company to do an IPO:
One involves injecting a large amount of capital into aggressive growth. Does anyone see any particular way how Skype COULD grow agressively?
The second one involves robbing unsuspecting investors of their money.
Not every web service with a social function needs to be Facebook.
Not all great software needs bespoke hardware. Ubiquitous software abhors it.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
WE INTERRUPT THIS call for a message from our sponsors
I tried to call my broker to buy some shares. Comcast picked that moment to throttle my traffic so the connection got a bit "wonky". Now I own 10,000,000 shares of SCO.
I'm boned.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
This IPO couldn't come a moment too soon - my Vonage share certificates were starting to get pretty soggy and smelly. Switching to Skype shares will freshen up the cage and make my birds much happier.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
The service is great. I pay $35 for unlimited calling across Canada and the US. It's a no brainer for me. Working from home? No problem, I make all the conference calls I want without tying up the home phone. Need to phone mom long distance? No problem. Working from my girlfriend's place where there's no landline? No problem.
There is the occasional issue. Sometimes (rarely), calls drop. Sometimes (very rarely) there is a number somewhere in the US I can't call. Honestly the biggest problem I have is that my number comes up weird on call display, so there's times when people I'm phoning don't answer because they think I'm some telemarketer, but really that's just my own fault for not shelling out $14 for some Skype credits so they can send an SMS message to my cell phone to confirm that they can use my cell number for call display.
Really their problem is they need to advertise better. When I tell people what I pay for my service, they immediately say "Holy crap that's cheap!" Most people just don't know it's out there, or if they do, they think it's only for Skype-to-Skype calling, and don't know you can call regular phones with it.
It would be nice if they had Skype-In support here (Canada), but really for what I'm paying, I can hardly complain. I easily am recouping in long distance savings what I'm paying out. It is not very hard to rack up $35 in long distance charges in a year otherwise.
He said full version. Dunno about yours, but my Skype only works over Verizon's connection, with WiFi not allowed to be used.
Yawn. Most companies are going to claim this. Next!
They want to charge for video calling, even though Oovoo and others offer it for free? Good luck, unless you're going to split it into free group calling or do a freemium model (certain group calling features are limited to paid users).
They want to make more money off of the people who aren't paying for Skype. I predict more ads and third party ads within the Skype application.
This is where the money could be useful: scaling up development and investing in new technologies and getting businesses aware. This requires people and time, which takes money. Right now, Skype isn't big in the corporate world from what I've seen, with big warnings from my company not to install it (and heavy filtering on anything Skype related). If they compromise and possibly allow a business client that keeps within the network for anything that isn't a call to an outgoing line (and maybe integrates with the desktop app), I could see Skype getting a major foothold.
Just some observations. I'm not wowed by this IPO either, and the lack of specificity of how they're going to spend the money makes me wonder if they've even gotten that far yet.
That's because they did a deal with Verizon for exclusive Skype on Android. The really troubling thing is that there's no determination as to how long this will be.
I have somewhat marginal cell coverage in my home from T-mobile. When using my N900 it is not a big deal thanks to the incredible Skype integration. I just set the "forward when unreachable" call forwarding (**62*) to my Skype-in number and it works like butter. With my Galaxy-S, not only can't I get skype, but it seems that the Verizon version will never let you use WiFi for calling. That makes it worthless for me.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."