Cisco (CSCO) Looking to Purchase Skype Before It Goes Public

September 1, 2010, 8:07 PM

Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO) is reportedly looking to purchase Skype before the Internet phone provider goes public. That’s according to the web publication TechCrunch.

TechCrunch reports that it wasn’t able to confirm the speculation. It also mentioned that Google had been interested in buying Skype but is not planning to make an offer, due to potential antitrust concerns.

Skype had filed last month to sell $100 million of shares in a U.S. initial public offering; its top three owners, Silver Lake Partners Ltd., Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, meant that to be “an advertisement for suitors to call,” the newspaper the new york post cited from its source.

The three owners purchased a majority interest in Skype for $3.1 billion last November; an IPO would probably value the business at $5 billion, the Post said.

Cisco declined to comment. Skype was not immediately available for comment.

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Tags: csco, gmail, google, skype