Internet phone service Skype plans to raise $100m (£63m) through a Wall Street flotation.
Skype lets users talk to each other via their computers
The Luxembourg-based firm is expected to be listed on the Nasdaq stock market, but it did not say when its shares would go on sale, or at what price.
Analysts have speculated Skype’s sale could be the biggest initial offering in the technology sector since Google went public in 2004 and raised $1.67bn (£1.05bn).
Skype was founded by two Scandinavian entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis in 2003.
They sold the business to US online auction company eBay in 2005 for $2.6bn (£1.6bn) and then the pair left the company in 2007.
EBay sold a 70% stake last November to a group of venture capitalists for $2bn (£1.25bn).
Currently, a 56% stake is held by a consortium including Silver Lake, a Canadian pension fund, and Andreessen Horowitz, which is run by Netscape founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
A further 30% remains in eBay's hands, while Zennström and Friis have 14%, acquired when they settled a lawsuit against eBay and the investor group.
Calls between Skype users are free. The company makes most of its money from calls that Skype users place to landline and mobile phones.
People talk using Skype
For the first half of 2010, Skype's profits fell 42% to $13.1m (£8.2m) on interest costs from the buyout as revenue rose 25% to $406.2m (£255.5m).
Skype said a portion of the shares will be made available to its customers "based on the nature and extent of their relationship with Skype".
By the end of June, its registered users were up 41% to 560 million from a year earlier, making it one of the world’s best-known consumer internet services, though only about 124 million use the service each month.
In contrast, Facebook says it has 500 million active users.
But in spite of a wide user base and strong growth, Skype has yet to prove it can generate the sort of profits that can put it among the elite group of top public internet companies.
The firm has set out ambitious expansion plans - it wants to embed its services in TVs and mobile devices and has struck up relationships with potential partners including Verizon Wireless, Panasonic, LG and Samsung.
"Although we have achieved significant global scale and user growth to date, the penetration of our connected and paying users is low relative to our market opportunity," said the company.
Skype lets users talk to each other via their computers
The Luxembourg-based firm is expected to be listed on the Nasdaq stock market, but it did not say when its shares would go on sale, or at what price.
Analysts have speculated Skype’s sale could be the biggest initial offering in the technology sector since Google went public in 2004 and raised $1.67bn (£1.05bn).
Skype was founded by two Scandinavian entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis in 2003.
They sold the business to US online auction company eBay in 2005 for $2.6bn (£1.6bn) and then the pair left the company in 2007.
EBay sold a 70% stake last November to a group of venture capitalists for $2bn (£1.25bn).
Currently, a 56% stake is held by a consortium including Silver Lake, a Canadian pension fund, and Andreessen Horowitz, which is run by Netscape founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.
A further 30% remains in eBay's hands, while Zennström and Friis have 14%, acquired when they settled a lawsuit against eBay and the investor group.
Calls between Skype users are free. The company makes most of its money from calls that Skype users place to landline and mobile phones.
People talk using Skype
For the first half of 2010, Skype's profits fell 42% to $13.1m (£8.2m) on interest costs from the buyout as revenue rose 25% to $406.2m (£255.5m).
Skype said a portion of the shares will be made available to its customers "based on the nature and extent of their relationship with Skype".
By the end of June, its registered users were up 41% to 560 million from a year earlier, making it one of the world’s best-known consumer internet services, though only about 124 million use the service each month.
In contrast, Facebook says it has 500 million active users.
But in spite of a wide user base and strong growth, Skype has yet to prove it can generate the sort of profits that can put it among the elite group of top public internet companies.
The firm has set out ambitious expansion plans - it wants to embed its services in TVs and mobile devices and has struck up relationships with potential partners including Verizon Wireless, Panasonic, LG and Samsung.
"Although we have achieved significant global scale and user growth to date, the penetration of our connected and paying users is low relative to our market opportunity," said the company.
