Parting ways

Distancing itself from Skype may solve other worries for eBay. The VoIP firm had been one of the most pressing issues facing Donahoe when he assumed the company's top spot in April 2008, replacing Meg Whitman. Almost immediately, Donahoe sought to undo some of the lingering problems surrounding the firm, putting a new management team in place at Skype, and announcing plans to reevaluate its role in the company.

Now, eBay may have a way to disentangle itself from its pricey acquisition.

«Separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines — e-commerce and online payments — and deliver long-term value to our stockholders,» Donahoe said.

Still, Skype has enjoyed no small success under Donahoe. The new management he installed at the firm, which is now headed by Josh Silverman, ultimately led to the unit's greater performance.

eBay said Skype's user base grew 47 percent from 2007, reaching 405 million by the end of 2008. The company also said that it expects Skype to top $1 billion in revenue by 2011, nearly twice its revenue in 2008.

«;Skype has become a stronger business in the past year, and I expect it will be even stronger a year from now,» Donahoe said. «;Skype has accelerating global user growth and strong fundamentals, diversified revenue streams and is competitively positioned in a large market. We expect Josh and his team to continue delivering results as we prepare Skype for an IPO.»

eBay also said Skype's most recent effort — its free application for the Apple iPhone — has garnered a large following, despite being limited to Wi-Fi connections only, rather than 3G wireless.

The company said the app saw more than a million downloads during its first 36 hours, and the application became the most-downloaded iPhone application in more than 40 markets, including the U.S. Since then, eBay said more than 2 million users downloaded the application from Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store, adding almost half a million new users for the service.

Ключевые слова: eBay, iPhone, IPO, Skype, VoIP

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