The reports started at the Wall Street Journal, and were confirmed by All Things D. Microsoft has agreed to buy Skype for close to $8.5 billion. The official press release is due at 5am (US Pacific Time).
Last year, Skype had revenues of $860 million and posted an operating profit of $264 million. However, the company has long-term debt of $686 million and it’s difficult to see how Microsoft has reached such a high valuation for the VoIP provider.
As Ars Technica points out:
The terms of the deal mean that for each Skype customer, Microsoft is paying about $1000. And on average, those customers are worth a profit of about $30, presuming most of Skype’s income comes from subscriptions and call charges.
Microsoft may well be planning to integrate Skype into its existing Windows Live Messenger / Lync / Exchange platforms. The question is whether Skype is a sensible purchase, at the price quoted, based on this strategy.