IP Democracy: Did eBay's Whitman Dig at Skype's Zennstrom, Friis?
I’m listening to eBay’s investor call regarding its Q2 07 earnings release and Meg Whitman, CEO of the online auction giant, just recapped the performance of all the company’s businesses. When it came to Skype, however, Whitman said, and I quote:
Skype is not where we want it to be in terms of user activity. This will require increased activity and attention from the leadership team.
Skype, of course, is the pioneer VoIP company purchased by eBay in the fall of 2005 for $4.1 billion. The Internet-based voice company is run within the eBay empire by co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom and co-founder Janus Friis, two entrepreneurs who are also very busy trying to build a new web-based video world with their separate venture, Joost.
When Whitman said that Skype needs increased activity and attention from the leadership team, was she implying that Zennstrom and Friis aren’t fully devoting themselves to growing eBay’s communications arm? Sure sounds like it to me.
Later, CFO Bob Swan amplified he bit. When talking about Skype, he said “Activation levels are not where we want them to be.”
Although Skype is, in fact, growing at reasonably decent levels when it comes to registered users and revenues, usage does seem to be flat and revenue growth, although healthy, has cooled from earlier levels. The number of registered users for Skype almost doubled year-over-year, climbing from 113 million in Q2 06 to 220 million in Q2 07. Revenues more than doubled over the same time period — growing from $44 million to $90 million.
But Skype to Skype minutes were flat year-over-year at 7.1 million, while Skype-Out minutes were flat sequentially at 1.3 million.
| Skype User, Revenue Stats (in mil.) | ||||||
| Num. of Registered Users | Quarterly Change | Revenue | Rev/User | Skype to Skype Minutes | Skype Out Minutes | |
| Q104 | 4.1 | na | na | na | na | na |
| Q204 | 6.8 | 2.7 | na | na | na | na |
| Q304 | 11.5 | 4.7 | na | na | na | na |
| Q404 | 19.8 | 8.3 | na | na | na | na |
| Q105 | 32.9 | 13.1 | na | na | na | na |
| Q205 | 44.1 | 11.2 | na | na | na | na |
| Q305 | 54.0 | 9.9 | na | na | na | na |
| Q405 | 74.7 | 20.7 | na | na | na | na |
| Q106 | 94.6 | 19.9 | $ 35.20 | $ 0.37 | 6.9 | 0.7 |
| Q206 | 113.0 | 18.4 | $ 44.00 | $ 0.39 | 7.1 | 0.8 |
| Q306 | 136.0 | 23.0 | $ 50.00 | $ 0.37 | 6.6 | 1.1 |
| Q406 | 171.0 | 35.0 | $ 66.00 | $ 0.39 | 7.6 | 1.5 |
| Q107 | 196.0 | 25.0 | $ 79.00 | $ 0.40 | 7.7 | 1.3 |
| Q207 | 220.0 | 24.0 | $ 90.00 | $ 0.41 | 7.1 | 1.3 |
| Source: Emerging Media Dynamics analysis of company data © 2007. | ||||||
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on July 18, 2007 5:25 PM to IP Democracy