Business

Skype appoints Tony Bates from Cisco a new CEO
by Zuzana Zelenakova

Luxemburg-based company Skype appointed a new CEO, it is Cisco´s Senior Vice President Tony Bates. He is about to replace Joshua Sliverman, who stepped into the office in 2008. According to the survey, Skype had 124 million active users in June, however, only 8.1 million of them paying. So the current goal is to raise the numbers of paying customers obviously. Skype users are allowed to make calles to each other free of charge, the company generates its revenue by charging calls to people who do not use the service. And Bates, who has a lot of experiences, especially in the enterprise world, should help with breakthrough in that area. "Skype is not only a powerful glo! bal brand but also a global technology leader in Internet communications," Bates said. "There are extraordinary opportunities ahead for Skype and I am eager to lead the company through this exciting juncture in its continuing transformation." The man who had about 12,000 employees at Cisco´s enterprise, commercial and small-business unit is certainly seeing a great potential in Skype, otherwise he wouldn´t leave such a prestigious position. Bates is to join the company at the end of October. Skype that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet was founded in 2003 by the Swedish businessman Niklas Zennstrom and the Dane Janus Friis. "The company today has over 560 million registered users in nearly every country and continues to develop products and services our customers love to use," said Joshua Silverman. "With a world-class communications industry veteran like Tony, Skype is well positioned to become the communications platform of choice for consumers! and businesses around the world." There is no doubt that Skyp! e is pro fitable, it earned $13 million on $406 million revenue during the first half of the year.

related story (sgx18341): http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101004/ts_alt_afp/usitcompanyt...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

Cantell TV is the fastest growing provider of digital broadcasting coupled with telecommunications, allowing people to easily control, view, upload and share digital content through proprietary interface coupled with free phone calls. Cantell TV is committed to ! delivering infinite choices to your world of entertainment at the tip of your fingers.

posted by Blog TechSource @ 2:10 PM