A rumor this week that Skype may be acquired by Cisco, prior to Skype's IPO later this year, was first reported by TechCrunch, but picked up by The Wall Street Journal, among others.
Skype's ownership is split between eBay, which currently owns 30 percent of the VOIP provider, and company founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, who jointly own 14 percent. Silver Lake Partners, JoltID Ltd., Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Andreessen Horowitz own the remaining 56 percent of shares. The anticipated price point for Cisco to acquire Skype has already been set, as Skype set expectations in its pre-IPO filings of achieving approximately $5 billion in market cap when it goes public.
The news of a potential Cisco acquisition of Skype has sent a number of analysts looking for the anticipated tie-ins between the companies. Let me suggest three, all desktop- and mobile device based: streaming, videoconferencing, and voice over IP.
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