May 18th, 2011 Facebook and Google mull Skype deals

Facebook and Google simultaneously negotiating with the owners of VoIP-service Skype about its possible purchase. Or joint venture if the negotiations for the purchase reach a deadlock. No official confirmation yet, Reuters refers to informed sources, which, however, still wished to remain anonymous.

Last year, Skype had intended to go to the exchange, but there was a change in leadership, and the IPO has been postponed until the end of this year. According to analysts, an initial public offering Skype on the Stock Exchange will attract about 1 billion dollars. At the same time interested parties willing to pay 3-4 billion to buy Skype with all the guts – or to organize a joint venture.

Negotiations are at an early stage, whether the participants come together or not – it’s hard to say.

If a mutual interest in Facebook and Skype is quite obvious – both resources have a large auditorium, and VoIP-functionality will be a very big competitive advantage of Facebook over other social networks.

As for Google, it has its own VoIP-service, which already has very wide audience, of course, three times smaller than Skype. Venture to suggest that Google wants to “grab” a VoIP-direction as such.