Not necessarily a great day over at Skype today – per the eBay news release, Niklas Zennstrom stepped down as CEO, eBay paid $533 million to “settle obligations to certain Skype shareholders” and is also taking a $900 million charge to write down the value of Skype. From a Bloomberg article:
“It has not performed as well as we would have hoped in the short term,” EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said in an interview. Skype was profitable the first half of the year, he said.
Many others out there have already offered their analysis and so I’ll point you to them today:
- Skype Journal (Jim Courtney): The Metamorphosis Begins: New CEO Sought for Skype
- VoIP Watch (Andy Abramson): Management Shake Up At Skype
- Bloomberg: EBay Takes $1.4 Billion Charge Related to Skype Unit
- Skype co-founder Janus Friis’ blog: (not) just another monday
- Thomas Crampton: Zennstrom defends Skype while stepping down
- Technorati search on ‘skype’