Skype files for $100-million IPO

Voice-over-IP service provider Skype has announced that it is going ahead with its 2009 plan of going public this year.

Yesterday it made a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for raising $100 million through an initial public offering (IPO) in the US for general corporate purposes.

The Luxembourg-based company, party owned among others by eBay and Silver Lake Funds, said that it is planning to have its shares traded on the Nasdaq, but did not reveal in its filing the number of shares or the price range of its IPO.

Skype, which was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, has not made a profit for most of its existence and said that it would use the proceeds of the IPO for "general corporate purposes".

Skype is a leading global internet communications company owned by an investor group led by Silver Lake, which includes eBay Inc, Joltid Limited and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and private equity firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Skype's software enables the world to communicate either freely or for nearly nothing and millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users.