85億美元：微軟天價收購Skype的內幕
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????2009年9月，銀湖合伙公司（Silver Lake Partners）和風投機構安德里森霍洛維茨公司從eBay手里買下了Skype。在eBay旗下的幾年間，Skype就好比是科技公司界的科特?柯本（1967—1994，美國已故著名搖滾歌手——譯注），雖然廣受歡迎，但是一直麻煩纏身。這起交易的價格為27.5億美元。 ????2011年五月，銀湖合伙公司和安德里森霍洛維茨公司宣布，他們將Skype賣給了微軟（Microsoft），交易價格是85億美金。 ????厲害！不到兩年的時間就賺了60億美元。 ????在許多人看來，Skype的高價出售、職業社交網站LinkedIn的IPO反響火爆，再加上Facebook等私營企業的天價估值，這些現象都證明了新一輪科技泡沫正在迅速發酵。Skype在2010年虧損了700萬美元，2009更是巨虧4.18億美元。若不是有泡沫，這樣一家虧損的企業，怎么可能可以這樣高的價格出售？究竟是什么原因導致Skype市值在短短兩年里漲了近三倍？ ????在背后運作這起交易的幾位高管近日接受了《財富》雜志（Fortune）的獨家專訪，披露了交易背后一些鮮為人知的故事。比如為了使Skype從一個小眾的網絡電話服務，變成一個精密復雜且日益壯大的音頻和視頻通訊應用，他們都做出了哪些戰略和戰術上的舉措。其實Skype本身早已有上市的計劃，Skype背后的投資人也相信Skype一定能憑自己的力量茁壯成長。安德里森霍洛維茨公司的創始人馬克?安德里森說道：“我們有時還幻想過叫停甚至破壞這筆交意。當然這筆交易讓我很興奮，不過即便它最終流產了，我也同樣興奮?！?/p> ????eBay一直想把Skype整合到它的拍賣網站里去，結果卻差強人意。要想對Skype進行大修，首先要過的是Skype的創始人——瑞典人尼古拉斯?曾斯特姆和丹麥人喬納斯?弗里斯這一關，因為Skype的基礎架構軟件的版權在他們二人手里。沒有這項知識產權，就沒有辦法充分釋放Skype的潛力。問題是，自從eBay收購了Skype后，他們倆就淡出了Skype，而且也不愿意把他們的發明賣給下一撥收購Skype的人。事實上，當年銀湖合伙公司剛一提出收購要約，曾斯特姆和弗里斯就把參與交易的各方統統告上了法庭。 ????負責這筆交易的是銀湖合伙公司的埃根?德班，他意識到光靠自己可能搞不定這些創始人，于是他又拉上了馬克?安德里森。安德里森本人就是一位科技公司的創始人，他創辦了網景（Netscape）和Opsware，同時還是Facebook的董事會成員。此外他也是新生代科技企業家眼中的導師。在安德里森看來，Skype是一塊璞玉，一家有史以來少數能產生網絡效應的科技公司之一。 ????安德里森同意從他的風投公司中拿出5，000萬美元，參與銀湖對Skype的收購，因為他大膽地相信，他和德班最終一定會贏得那兩位創始人的信任。果不其然，曾斯特姆和弗里斯最終同意接受新所有制結構中14%的股權，作為交換，他倆把所有的知識產權都還給了Skype。在軟件產權得到保證后，投資人們開始對Skype進行改造。德班表示，這兩年里他差不多把一半的時間都花在了跟Skype有關的事務上，重點放在為Skype引入新的管理層。他和安德里森不動聲色地把Skype的30名高層管理人員換掉了29名。（而在最近與微軟的交易結束之前，Skype又開除了8名高管，這樣一來，這8名高管將損失高達上百萬美元的期權支出。這8名高管的離職曾引起了不小的轟動。）Skype是家由風投資助的私有公司，拜此身份所賜，Skype才得以將它的編程人員擴編了一倍，并且在硅谷建了一座新的辦公樓。 ????在這支新管理團隊的領導下，Skype馬力全開，幾乎每4到6個星期就會推出新版本的Skype，以及一些附加功能。此外Skype也進入了智能手機應用等重要的新業務領域，而Skype還被嵌入了電視和游戲機等消費性產品里，并與Facebook和威瑞森（Verizon Wireless）等建立了合作關系。德班表示：“與Facebook的合作關系非常重要。當然與運營商的合作也很重要，他們以前一向當我們是敵人。威瑞森是世界上最大的運營商之一，與威瑞森的合作標志著它與我們不再是敵對關系，相反會支持我們的發展?！?/p> ????事實上，Skype算是在一夜之間成了通訊革命的受益者。在2009年和2010年，iPhone、iPad和各種安卓設備的熱賣使移動運營商們意識到，他們最有可利可圖的業務并不是傳統的語音電話，而是提供數據服務。因此他們開始把像Skype這樣的應用視作一種資產，因為它可以推動智能手機以及各種昂貴的數據方案的銷量。 ????到2010年秋天，也就是德班和安德里森收購Skype一年之后，Skype的用戶人數已經從一年前的4億增長到了6億，而且其視頻通話功能的使用率也在上升。但是Skype仍然需要一位能帶領公司上市的CEO。（約什?西爾弗曼自從eBay時代就是Skype的CEO了，直到去年仍然留任）于是德班聯系了時任思科（Cisco）高級主管的托尼?貝茨。他們在一起談了三個小時，話題當然是圍繞著Skype。 ????接下來貝茨與馬克?安德里森的會面才是重頭戲。貝茨說道：“我一直很仰慕他，但是之前從未見過他。步入安德里森霍洛維茨公司的辦公室的感覺很奇妙，他們的大廳里有一座非常好的圖書館，我在里面找了找幾本對我來說有特殊意義的書。其中一本是威廉?吉布森的《精神漫游者》（Neuromancer），但是沒能找到。但這給我們的談話開了個好頭。” ????貝茨是個英國人，有著很深的科技背景和大公司的管理經驗。工程師們往往恃才傲物，固執己見，而貝茨卻能與派駐全球各地的工程師們進行爭鋒相對的爭論，這樣的高管為數不多。德班稱，要找像貝茨這樣的人才，稱得上是“大海撈針”。貝茨于2010年10月加盟Skype，而Skype也推遲了它的IPO，從而給予貝茨足夠的時間，使公司得以進一步的發展。 ????當時這些高管們并未料到，延期進行IPO反而對Skype有利：到2011年初，Skype已經在發展新的贏利方式，例如把Skype視頻通話接通前的呼叫時間當成廣告位，賣給廣告商們。高管們也開始談論視頻業務，并且開始策劃推動Skype上市。當時微軟的財務總監彼得?克萊因也對Skype的成就多有耳聞，于是在今年四月與德班進行了接洽。微軟的手機軟件業務還處在襁褓階段，正是四處物色強援的時候。微軟將Skype視作音頻和視頻電話的潛在合作伙伴。而且微軟的Xbox游戲平臺是通過寬帶連接的，微軟認為Skype對Xbox的發展大有裨益。 ????德班開玩笑地將這筆交易比作嫁女兒。當問到談判的細節時，安德里森卻不尋常地沉默了起來。而微軟也拒絕讓克萊因接受采訪。不過顯然微軟之所以報出高價，并不是為了在價格上打敗另一個意向買家，而是要避免Skype上市，所以它報出的價格必須要高出Skype的上市估值。對于德班、安德里森和貝茨而言，85億美元的現金實在太誘人了，讓人難以拒絕。到目前為止，美國反壟斷官員已經非正式同意了這項交易，歐盟的批準手續還沒正式下來。 ????那么，微軟報出的收購價是不是太高了，從而導致了新的科技泡沫？微軟發言人弗蘭克?肖把這起交易與2007年的一起交易進行了比較，當時微軟斥資2.4億美元收購Facebook1.6%的股份。據報道，最近Facebook的市值已漲至800億美元，這樣看來，微軟所購得的那1.6%的股份如今已價值13億美元。他表示：“歷史并不總是重復的，但人們對這兩樁交易的看法卻有些相似之處?！?/p> ????顯然，微軟買到的Skype是一個快速增長、定位準確的全球性資產，而且有著無與倫比的品牌。不過2005年eBay斥資26億美元買下Skype的時候，恐怕也是這樣想的。因此問題的關鍵在于這種資產應該如何管理，以及是否能將它與現有的產品和服務進行整合。eBay在這兩方面都干砸了。如果微軟也重蹈eBay的覆轍，那么或許我們以后要以另一個題目續寫這個故事了——或者幾年之后又會出現這個故事的翻版。 ????本文作者凱文?梅尼是即將上市的新書《兩秒鐘優勢：預測未來，走向成功》（The Two-Second Advantage: How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future ... Just Enough）一書的作者。 ????譯者：樸成奎 |
????In September 2009, Silver Lake Partners and venture firm Andreessen-Horowitz bought Skype from eBay, where it had become the Kurt Cobain of technology companies (wildly popular, deeply troubled). The value of that deal: $2.75 billion. ????In May 2011 the new owners announced that they were selling the company to Microsoft for $8.5 billion. ????Voilà! Six billion bucks in less than two years. ????For many, the Skype deal is seen -- along with exuberance for the LinkedIn IPO and sky-high private valuations of companies such as Facebook -- as a sign of a fast-inflating technology bubble: What else could explain such a lofty price tag for a company that lost $7 million in 2010 and $418 million the year before? What could have changed in just two years to make Skype nearly three times as valuable? ????A lot, according to the executives behind the transaction, who spoke with Fortune exclusively about the strategic and tactical moves they made to transform the company from a quirky Internet phone service into a sophisticated and growing voice and video communications app. Indeed, Skype had long-standing plans to go public, and its backers felt sure it would have thrived on its own. "We have occasional fantasies of calling up [Microsoft] and torpedoing the deal," quips Marc Andreessen, founder of Andreessen-Horowitz. "I'm thrilled with the deal but would be equally thrilled if it fell apart." ????The key to fixing Skype, which eBay (EBAY) struggled to integrate into its auction site, was to win over the company's mercurial founders, Niklas Zennstr?m and Janus Friis, who actually owned the rights to the software underlying the service -- without that intellectual property, it would be impossible to unleash Skype's potential. The problem: The two had been pushed aside after the eBay acquisition and had no intention of throwing a bone to the next guys who wanted to buy their invention. In fact, the moment Silver Lake floated a buyout offer, Zennstr?m, a Swede, and Friis, a Dane, sued all the parties involved. ????Egon Durban, the Silver Lake partner who was leading the transaction, realized he needed help with the founders. Enter Andreessen, himself a founder (Netscape, Opsware), an eBay and Facebook board member, and a guru to a new generation of tech entrepreneurs. To Andreessen, Skype was a potential gem -- one of the few great network-effect tech companies ever created. ????Andreessen agreed to invest $50 million of his venture firm's money in the deal on the bold assumption that he and Durban ultimately would win the founders' trust. He assumed correctly: Zennstr?m and Friis accepted a 14% stake in the new ownership structure in exchange for giving all the IP back to Skype. With Skype's software rights secured, the investors went into turnaround mode. Durban, who says he spent about half his time over two years on Skype matters, focused on bringing in new management. He and Andreessen quietly changed out 29 of Skype's 30 top managers. (In contrast, the recent firing of eight executives before the closing of the Microsoft (MSFT) deal -- they'll lose their chance at million-dollar payouts -- caused quite a stir.) Thanks to its status as a venture-backed company with options to grant, Skype was able to double its engineering ranks and open a Skype facility in Silicon Valley. ????The new team furiously started spitting out added features and new versions of Skype every four to six weeks, and dove into significant new businesses, including smartphone apps, deals to embed Skype in consumer products like TVs and game consoles, and partnerships with Facebook and Verizon Wireless (VZ). "The Facebook partnership was critical," Durban says. "And the partnerships with carriers -- they had thought of us as an enemy. Getting Verizon signed up signaled that one of the world's largest carriers was not at war with us but was supportive." ????In fact, Skype was suddenly surfing tectonic shifts in communications. The wave of iPhones and iPads and Androids in 2009 and 2010 pushed wireless carriers to the realization that their most profitable business would be providing data services, not voice calls, and they came to see apps such as Skype as assets that would help drive sales of smartphones and pricey data plans. ????By the fall of 2010, just a year after the buyout, Skype was surging: Users had climbed to 600 million from about 400 million a year earlier -- and it saw rising usage of its video calling services. But it needed a CEO who could take the company public. (Josh Silverman, who was the CEO of Skype when it was a unit of eBay, had stayed on.) Durban contacted Tony Bates, a senior executive at Cisco (CSCO). They talked for nearly three hours -- on Skype, naturally. ????The clincher was Bates's meeting with Andreessen. "I'd always been a big admirer but had never met him," Bates says. "Going into the Andreessen-Horowitz office was an experience. They have this wonderful library in the lobby, and I looked for a couple of books that were special to me. One was Neuromancer, by William Gibson. I couldn't find it, so that became a good opening to the conversation." ????Bates, a Brit with a deep technical background and big-company chops, was perhaps one of the few executives -- "a needle in a haystack," Durban calls him -- who could wrangle strong-willed engineers spread across half the globe. He joined in October 2010, and Skype postponed its IPO, which gave Bates time to get the company into better shape. ????Little did the executives know the delay would work in their favor: By early 2011, Skype was developing new ways to make money, including selling advertisers airtime during Skype video calls. Executives started talking up the video business -- and a forthcoming IPO. Peter Klein, Microsoft's chief financial officer, had been hearing the chatter and reached out to Durban in April. Microsoft, which had been looking for ways to bolster its fledgling efforts in mobile-phone software, saw Skype as a potential partner for voice and video calls; it also saw the software as an interesting way to enhance its broadband-connected Xbox gaming platform. ????Durban, who jokingly likens the deal to marrying off one of his daughters, and Andreessen are uncharacteristically mum when it comes to the juicy details of the negotiations, and Microsoft declined to make Klein available for the story, but clearly Microsoft was bidding not against another buyer but against the valuation Skype expected to secure from its public offering. For Durban, Andreessen, and Bates, $8.5 billion in cash was an offer too good to refuse. So far U.S. antitrust officials have signed off on the deal, and European Union approval is pending. ????So did Microsoft overpay for Skype, contributing to a new tech bubble? Spokesman Frank Shaw likens the deal to Microsoft's $240 million investment for a 1.6% stake in Facebook in 2007 -- now worth roughly $1.3 billion based on reports that put Facebook's value at about $80 billion. "History doesn't always repeat," he says, "but there are similarities in terms of what people are saying about the Skype deal." ????Certainly Microsoft will be buying a fast-growing, well-positioned global asset with an unbeatable brand. But that's what eBay thought when it bought Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion. The devil is in how that asset is managed, and whether it can integrate with existing products and services. eBay blew it on both counts. If Microsoft does the same, we could wind up writing this story again with different names -- or maybe some of the same ones -- a few years from now. ????--Kevin Maney is co-author of the upcoming book The Two-Second Advantage: How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future ... Just Enough. |
