We now have the numbers on the Skype acquisition, or more closely we have the numbers that Om Malik has put together after some sleuthing for data. Recall that Ebay sold about 65% of Skype for around two billion dollars. This effectively places the value of a Skype user at around $5. That might sound a tad high, but at least in my case, it is low. I have paid a large multiple of $5 into Skype, more than allowing them a $5 profit on myself.
There were four investment groups in the deal, following are the numbers that Om Malik has:
- “Silverlake Partners: $1.48 billion.
- Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board: $300 million.
- Index Ventures Growth Fund: $70 million.
- Andreessen Horowitz: $50 million or a sixth of Marc Andreessen’s new $300 million fund.”
The only truly shocking numbers are the billion-plus pile of change from Silverlake and the fact that AH just let loose a full 16.66% of their fund in a single outflow. Or, they bought about ten million Skype users, depending on how you look at it. Of course, these are not official numbers, and have not been corroborated by the investors themselves, but they should be close enough for us to take a indicative.
Now the question remains, at around 4x revenue, did the investors overpay for skype? Doubtful, Given the supposed 650 million in revenue, Skype need only profit 100 million at a PE ratio of 30 to more or less meet its valuation. Once you factor in the growth rates that Skype is seeing around the world, the numbers seem reasonable, or almost small.
