SlashGear

Skype may be swapping hands again, with rumors coming from one of TechCrunch‘s more trusted sources that Cisco has made an offer to acquire the well-known VoIP service.  According to insiders, Skype are hoping for a $5bn valuation from their ongoing IPO process; there’s no word on how much Cisco may have offered, but presuming this is a serious move by the company it could be a significant step up from the $2.5bn eBay paid for Skype back in 2005.

There’s also some talk of Google being interested in Skype, though they might have fallen short of actually putting in a bid due to antitrust concerns.  Either way, whoever ends up with the company will need to have a good plan to turn a decent profit: as part of the IPO process, Skype revealed that only 6-percent of their current user-base pays for any kind of service, with the rest making free calls only.  Skype has recently attempted to broaden their appeal with third-party developers and hardware manufacturers by launching the Skype SDK, a way to invisibly integrated the VoIP service into other apps and devices.

[via GigaOm]