So what do you make of Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis putting together a bid for Skype?
After selling the business to eBay for $3.1-billion, the New York Times reports the dynamic telecom duo apparently want to buy it back for about $2-billion.
With Skype closing in on $1-billion in annual revenue and, likely, healthy margins, there has to be multiple parties interested in Skype despite the current credit crunch. Even though Skype has been a terrible strategic fit for eBay, the business has surprisingly thrived over the past four years.
In many respects, eBay’s inability to find synergies with Skype has been a blessing by letting Skype continue to operate without many distractions.
For Zennstrom and Friis, regaining control of Skype is an interesting proposition given they have the cash to do anything they want. Clearly, they believe Skype still has huge potential, and they are just the right people to lead it forward.
The other reality is many entrepreneurs suffer from a sense of guilt or loss after they sell their “babies”. Ron Joyce, for example, has openly rued the day that he sold his controlling stake in Tim Horton’s to Wendy’s. While it great to walk away with a bundle of dough, it must be difficult for entrepreneurs to walk away from things in which they have invested so much time, energy and effort.
If Zennstrom and Friis manage to reacquire Skype, it will be interesting to see how they jump-start the business after four lonely years within the eBay empire.
For other views, check out Fred Wilson who adroitly says that “Big companies mostly mess up entrepreneurial companies when they buy them and it really is best that companies like Skype stay independant and run by their founders if that is possible. And it looks like that might be possible with Skype. That makes me happy.”
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