San Francisco (ip-192.com): While Skype is preparing an IPO; Cisco may be interested in buying the company that allows cheap VoIP phone calls before it goes public. The company, founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, is looking to raise about $5 billion through the initial public offering.
Skype allows its 560 million registered users to communicate through both instant messaging and voice chat. The SkypeIn service allows users to receive calls on their computers dialed by regular phone subscribers to a local Skype phone number. Skype introduced free video conferencing for the Windows and Mac OS platforms in January 2006. Linux users needed to wait until March 2008 when the service was released as part of Skype 2.0 for Linux. Audio conferences allow up to 25 people to connect at the same time.
An acquisition of Skype would allow Cisco to jump into the mass market of video communications. Skype’s service would complement Cisco’s WebX and Telepresense video conference offering that target business customers. However, the prime networking and communications technology company would start to compete with some of its own customers, including AT&T and Verizon.
If rumors are true, the competition between Skype and Google could heat up. Google just announced the integration of Google Voice with its Gmail service and could be on its way to become a serious contender to VoIP services offered by Skype.
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