Investors Have to Wait Yet Longer to Buy Skype Shares

Investors who had been eagerly awaiting their chance to buy into Internet telephony service provider Skype will have to wait yet another long six months or so. The Wall Street Journal reports that the recent installment of CEO Tony Bates and potential trouble in the IPO market are holding the company back from its foray onto a public exchange.

A Journal source on the delay:

"Tony needs to get his feet underneath him and understand the business and the voice of the company," another person familiar with the matter said. "The intention is to go when Tony is ready and when the macroeconomic climate allows the company to go."

To judge from one day's trading in today's two public offerings, there's hefty demand for new public companies. Maybe this has something to do with the putative death of the IPO.

Former parent eBay jettisoned Skype in fall of 2009 to a group of investors headed by Silver Lake Partners.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor