Silver Lake Partners, L.P., is about to make a huge profit on the largest investment it’s ever made. The private equity shop agreed on May 10 to sell Internet telephone service provider Skype S.à r.l. to Microsoft Corporation for $8.5 billion in cash less than two years after Silver Lake led a group of investors that paid eBay Inc. $1.9 billion for 70 percent of Skype [Big Deals, November 2009].

Silver Lake teamed with Andreessen Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Index Ventures on the deal, a tacit admission by eBay that its own purchase of Skype in 2005 had been a failure. Skype fared better under Silver Lake’s stewardship and was planning on an IPO before agreeing to sell to Microsoft.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]