# Skype Should Not Sell

By [Continuations](https://continuations.com) · 2011-05-06

skype, google, facebook, ipo

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Despite their best efforts to screw up the Mac client, I still love Skype both as a consumer service and as an independent company.  Back when eBay decided to spin out Skype to private investors instead of waiting and spinning it out to eBay holders [I was surprised](http://continuations.com/post/177403564/ebay-is-doing-what-with-skype) (to put it mildly). Now I am equally surprised at the thought of Skype [selling to Google or Facebook](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/04/us-skype-ipo-strategic-idUSTRE7437UG20110504) instead of going public. Does the team behind Skype have so little faith in their ability to be a meaningful independent company? Skype is one of the largest consumer networks out there. Yes, Skype may be poorly monetized today but that is less a function of some basic impossibility and more of a lack of imagination and historic constraints (Skype payments anyone?). Few companies get a shot at true global scale. Skype has it. So why pair up with someone instead of building an independent platform? As an avid user I would [happily buy shares in an IPO](http://continuations.com/post/1592309010/ipos-2-0) and hold them for a long time to come.

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*Originally published on [Continuations](https://continuations.com/skype-should-not-sell)*