Technically Speaking

LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg, Aug. 9, 2010 — Skype S.A., a global technology leader that enables real-time communications over the Internet, today announced that it has filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its ordinary shares. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated will be the joint global coordinators as well as joint book-running managers for the offering. BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. will also be acting as joint book-running managers. Lazard Capital Markets LLC, RBC Capital Markets Corporation and UBS Securities LLC will be acting as joint lead co-managers; Allen & Company LLC and Evercore Group LLC will be acting as co-managers for the offering.

When available, a copy of the preliminary prospectus may be obtained from Goldman, Sachs & Co., Prospectus Department, 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, via telephone: +1 866 471 2526, via facsimile: +1 212 902 9316, or by e-mail: prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com; from J.P. Morgan Securities Inc.; c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, Attn: Prospectus Department, or by telephone +1 866 803 9204; from Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated Attention: Prospectus Department, via telephone: +1 866 718 1649, 180 Varick Street, Second Floor, New York, NY 10014, or by e-mail: prospectus@morganstanley.com.

A registration statement relating to the securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. The securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, the securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.

For one month Skype is offering free phone calls to these countries:

• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Algeria for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Argentina for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Australia for a month
• 400 minutes free calls to landlines in Brazil for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Cameroon for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Chile for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Denmark for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in France for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Germany for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Ghana for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Greece for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines and mobiles in Honduras
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Italy for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines and mobiles in Japan for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Mexico for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in the Netherlands for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in New Zealand for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Nigeria for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Paraguay for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Serbia for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Portugal for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Slovakia for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Slovenia for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in South Africa for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in South Korea for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Spain for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Switzerland for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in the UK for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Uruguay for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines and mobiles in the USA for a month

Time to chat it up with other folks about the world cup.

Here is the blog post

Sean Fox has a great article about video phone sales should increase rapidly in the next two years.  From dropping costs, increased functionality, to lower bandwidth needs video calling is becoming a reality.

In my opinion the question will become, ‘Do I need a dedicated piece of equipment for video calling?’  We are seeing new televisions with Ethernet ports, Wifi, Skype clients and HD cameras built into the set.  Every new laptop, even $299 net books, have a camera built in and can do high quality video calling.

Why would someone pay $200 for something that is already in their TV.  I remember the first time I saw a TV/VCR combo, it didn’t make sense because VCR technology was advancing so fast, you couldn’t upgrade the VCR.

Here are some of the things I think TV’s of the future will be able to do:

• Have a built in hard drive to let you
  • Rip your CD’s
  • Copy your DVD’s without violating the DCMA
  • Function as your DVR
• Wirelessly copy your music and videos to your car’s multimedia system
• Stream music and videos to all your computers
• Make and receive video calls
• 3-D pictures without the need for glasses
• Have access to rich online content like youtube and Hulu
• Speech recognition for remote-less control
• Become a game platform
• Rent movies and games from an online store
• Did I miss anything?

All of these options will be integrated into the system seamlessly.

I always thought this is what products like the AppleTV would become.  If the past has taught us anything, it is that things get smaller and two devices that work together become one.

Here is the link to Sean’s post.

One billion users sounds like  a bit much.  The back end database for that many users would rival Google.

“Skype Technologies SA, the largest provider of international calling, said the number of registered users will nearly double to 1 billion by 2015.

Half of Skype’s registered users by that time will be business customers, who bring in 20 percent to 30 percent more revenue on average than consumers, said David Gurle, a Skype vice president.”

Read the rest here

According to a Smarthouse post Dan Neary Asia Pacific Vice President for Skype, stated Skype is focusing on the iPhone, Symbian and Android operating systems – not Windows Mobile 7.

I find it hard to believe that Skype would not develop for such a large market.  There are so many Apple/Google detractors that WM7 will get a big bump when it is launched.

Windows Mobile currently has a 24% market share for business users, behind RIM/Blackberry and the iPhoneOS.

I am sure Microsoft has learned from the Android OS and will make the platform open – not open source – to developers.

I would bet that Skype will have a native app for WM7 on launch day.

Today Skype released a beta version of their software that allows you see multiple video streams simultaneously.  They have had voice conferencing for a long while, video is the next step.  I will be curious to see  how much bandwidth is used when viewing two HD streams.

It is a premium feature – that means it will not be free.  I imagine it will be 10 cents per minute or less for the feature.  With Skype’s P2P type network I am sure they will offload as much of the bandwidth usage as possible.

Here is the announcement on the Skype Blog

Tom Keating has a great take over on his blog

“Ever logged onto your Skype account or left it running in the background, to be occasionally greeted with an obscure “advert” stating you have won the jackpot, your “bank” needs access to your account or even porn. Of course, simply closing the conversation and blocking the user is a quick short-term solution, but once weekly can get quite frustrating. Even more so if your account is set to block users not on your friend list to contact you without a friendship request.”

Read the rest here

Skype CEO Josh Silverman said that Skype is considering adding third party ads into the Skype client as a way to raise funds.

He also said that Skype is committed to supporting Skype as a free service, the ads would be a way to do just that.

Last week Skype announced that it will be rolling out five way video conferences very soon, the feature is currently in beta.  Right now all Skype to Skype calling and video is free with no ads.

You can see the video here