Reuters has reported that Facebook and Google want to get involved with Skype, after the company has delayed going public. The company is still expected to go public during the latter part of this year.
Both companies are looking to form individual joint ventures with Skype, according to two unnamed sources. Both talks are supposedly in their early stages and nothing has been made public.
A deal with Skype could be worth billions, as much as $4 billion. When Skype goes public, the company is expected to raise about $1 billion.
Last August, Skype initiated its plans and filed a registration statement to finally launch its IPO. When the new CEO stepped into power last fall, Skype delayed the initial public offering until the second half of 2011.
All three companies refused to comment about any type of deal. There has been stuff in the rumor mill in the past about Facebook hooking up with Skype to do a video chat venture (you can already call with Facebook, courtesy of T-Mobile).
Google, on the other hand, has their own VOIP venture, Google Voice, so we’re not sure if a joint venture would undercut Google’s own projects. We’ve already seen a bad case of two Google products competing against each other (Google Video versus YouTube), however we wouldn’t assume Google is planning to buyout Skype.
It’s really hard to say what each company has in mind with its dealings with Skype, but both most likely want to cash out when Skype is expected to surge in value when it goes public.
(via Reuters)
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