Skype: From Startup to $8.5B in Eight YearsHow the internet calling service went from an idea to a multibillion-dollar acquisition in less than a decade.
ByJason Fell•
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Tech giant Microsoft Corp. announced this week that it plans to buy internet calling service Skype for a whopping $8.5 billion in cash. But this isn't the first time a company has ponied up major dollars for Skype since it was founded by two European entrepreneurs more than eight years ago.
一个快速的公司及其创始人的历史llows.
Aug. 2003:Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the entrepreneurs who founded file-sharing service Kazaa in the early 2000s, start a service that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. They call the Luxembourg-based business Skype.
Oct. 2005:After gaining traction with users, Skype ispurchasedby eBay for approximately $2.5 billion, plus potential performance-based consideration.
April 2006:Skype says it hasreachedmore than 100 million registered users -- nearly double the users it had the previous year.
May 2007:Zennstrom and Friis launch peer-to-peer online TV service Joost. The pair aresaidto raise as much as $45 million in funding.
Oct. 2007:Zennstrom steps down as CEO of Skype, becoming nonexecutive chairman. In 2007, Skypegenerates$382 million in revenues and claims to have 276 million users. However, eBay says it will incur a $1.4 billion "impairment" due, in part, to a $530 millionearn-out paymentto Skype shareholders.
Feb. 2008:Replacing Zennstrom, eBaynamesShopping.com CEO Josh Silverman as chief executive of Skype.
March 2009:Skype is expected to double its revenue to more than $1 billion in 2011, eBaysays.
Nov. 2009:Following an announcement the previous month, eBayofficially sellsa 70 percent stake of Skype to an investor group led by private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and others including venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Founders Zennstrom and Friisjointhe investor group.
Separately, Zennstrom and FriissellJoost to Santa Monica, Calif.-based content network Adconion Media Group for an undisclosed amount.
June 2010:Zennstrom and Friis launchonline jukebox service Rdio.
August 2010:Skypefilesfor an initial public offering,reportedlyseeking to raise as much as $1 billion. The company says it generated more than $406 million in revenues through the first half of the year.
Oct. 2010:Tony Bates, a former Cisco Enterprise, Commercial and Small Business Group senior vice president and general manager, is named Skype's CEO.
May 2011:After delaying its IPO, rumors begin to fly. Facebook and Google are said to separately consider buying Skype: A deal issaidto be valued at $3 billion to $4 billion.
Not long after, Microsoft swoops in andagrees to buy the companyfor $8.5 billion in cash. Skype says it had 170 million users who racked up more than 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010.
The investor group that sold Skype to Microsoft issaidto pull in a total capital gain of more than $5 billion on the sale.
