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Today – following rumors that the founders of eBay (News - Alert)-owned Skype were pursuing a repurchase – the online retail market leader announced plans to sell its increasingly popular Internet calling service within about a year.

 

Though the timing of eBay’s initial public offering, or “IPO” will depend on this down economy’s rebounding, the company says it’s seeking to sell Skype (News - Alert) in the first half of 2010.

 

According to John Donahoe, president and chief executive officer of eBay, Skype is a "great stand-alone business" with "strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum."

 

“But it’s clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal,” Donahoe said. “We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximizing its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications. In addition, 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.”

 

Not everyone agrees with Donahoe’s black-and-white view of the two companies’ divergent synergies.

 

This week, TMC (News - Alert) President Rich Tehrani here wonders how the world’s largest e-commerce company fails to find a synergy with the leader IP telephony software group.

 

“For example, the fact that I don’t see ads for eBay auctions as I wait for calls to connect is mindboggling,” Tehrani writes.

 

At the same time, Tehrani writes, Skype itself doesn’t need to go anywhere.

 

“It is doing fine under eBay IMHO and it is rolling out new features and functions at a nice clip and gaining new users by the million,” he writes. “If anything, eBay needs Skype to ensure it has multiple sources of revenue and for this reason, it would be a mistake to sell Skype too cheaply.”

 

According to eBay, Donahoe himself started studying Skype one year ago, when he became CEO of the San Jose, California-based company.

 

Since then, Donahoe installed a new management team at Skype, led by Josh Silverman.

 

Tehrani’s point about not selling too cheaply is well-taken.

 

Last year, Skype generated revenues of $551 million, up 44 percent from 2007, and segment margins of approximately 21 percent. Registered users had hit 405 million by the end of 2008, up 47 percent from the prior year, and the company says that it expects Skype – which recently released its iPhone application – to top $1 billion in revenue in 2011, nearly doubling 2008 revenues.

 

Donahoe said that he fully expects Skype to keep growing.

 

“Skype has accelerating global user growth and strong fundamentals, diversified revenue streams and is competitively positioned in a large market,” Donahoe said. “We expect Josh and his team to continue delivering results as we prepare Skype for an IPO.”