eBay has announced it is to publicly list Skype in order to concentrate on its core business of e-commerce and online payments.

eBay is to publicly list the internet phone business Skype, with an initial offering expected to be completed by the first half of 2010.

eBay Inc. bought Skype for $2.6 billion (£1.7bn) in 2005 and since then it has seen dramatic growth. By the end of 2008, Skype had generated revenues of $551 million (£370m), up 44% compared to 2007, and registered users totalled over 405m, up 47%.

John Donahoe, eBay Inc.’s President and CEO, had outlined his intentions to separate the two businesses when he took the role in April 2008.

Commenting on the decision, Mr Donahoe, said: “Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum. But it’s clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal.

“We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximising its potential. This will give Skype the focus and resources required to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications.”

Skype is constantly looking to increase its volume of registered users and recently more than one million people downloaded the free Skype application for iPhone in the first 36 hours after it became available. In just over a week this figure had more than doubled – making it the number one downloaded free application in more than 40 markets, including the US, UK and Japan, adding almost half a million new users.

As well as launching a free application for the iPhone, Skype has also announced that a version of the software will be available as a free download for Blackberry ® smartphones allowing users to save money on calls to landlines and mobiles abroad. It will work simply wherever the mobile phone works without the need for a Wi-Fi connection. In May 2009, versions will also be available for the Blackberry ® Bold™ and Blackberry ® Curve™ smartphones.