Skype Files for $100 Million IPO

Internet telephony giant Skype plans to raise as much as $100 million in an initial public offering.

The company said Monday that it has filed an S-1 statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the IPO, Skype will trade on the Nasdaq Global Market. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are among the banks handling the IPO. Neither a price range nor a date for the IPO have yet been set.

The potential for a Skype public offering has been talked about for a long time. In late 2009, movement in that direction came when online auction giant eBay, which had acquired Skype in 2006, sold off its controlling interest in Skype.

Luxembourg-based Skype offers a software-based communications service that allows people to make free voice and video calls over the Internet to other Skype users using almost any Internet-connected device. The VoIP service also allows people to make and receive calls from regular telephone numbers using a paid service.

The company has been around since 2003 and has 124 million connected users. The company claims that users placed 95 billion calling minutes over Skype in the first half of 2010.

Marguerite Reardon

Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie.

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