Skype Won't IPO Until Second Half This Year
Internet-phone company Skype Ltd. won’t hold its initial public offering until the second half of the year, according to people familiar with the matter, later than some investors had expected.
The company’s recent hiring of a new chief executive and uncertainties in the IPO market and economy have slowed down the offering process, the people familiar with the situation said. The earliest date Skype would go public is July, one of the people said.
Skype filed documents last August stating its intent to go public and investors expected that Skype would go public in early 2011. But in an unexpected move last October, the company hired a new CEO, Tony Bates, a top executive from Cisco Systems Inc. That has effectively put an IPO “on hold” for now, one person familiar with the matter said.
