Skype denies media report

PARIS: Skype dismissed as inaccurate a report which said Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa acquired a 5 percent stake in it, valuing the Internet software telecoms provider at 1 billion euros ($1.26 billion).

"The facts are wrong," Niklas Zennstrom, chief executive and co-founder of Skype, told Reuters in a telephone interview on Friday. "I think they received confused information," he added, referring to a report in French newspaper Les Echos on Friday.

Skype software users can make free phone calls worldwide with a high-speed Internet connection. Its free software counts 52 million registered users and 2 million use its pay-service to call and receive calls from non-Skype fitted computers.

Zennstrom declined to comment on speculation the company had retained Morgan Stanley to advise it on a possible sale or initial public offering of its shares which some reports have said would value the business at close to 3 billion euros.

"We get approaches regularly from people who are interested in investing in us or acquiring us but I cannot comment on them," Zennstrom said.

Skype did not need to raise funds to operate but "there might be opportunities to raise money to expand faster," he said without giving details.

Launched two years ago, Skype has raised $24 million since its inception from several private equity firms including Mangrove Capital Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Bessemer Venture Partners and Index Ventures.

Zennstrom, in May, expected Skype to be cash flow positive this year. But Timothy Draper, managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, told Reuters last month Skype was already cash-flow positive. Zennstrom declined to confirm his statement.

Zennstrom said Skype was on track to introduce Internet-based video-conferencing before the end of the year but would not give a precise schedule.