Josh Silverman is leaving Skype to be replaced by Tony Bates as Skype’s new CEO. Tony will be leaving his position as Senior Vice President at Cisco and is expected to join Skype by the end of October. In the mean time Skype’s Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Adrian Dillon will act as interim CEO.
Josh has worked for the eBay group since 2003, overseeing the acquisition of Marktplaats and the launch of eBay’s European Classified Ads business. He then moved to Shopping.com as CEO before taking the helm at Skype.
Replacing Josh at Skype breaks one of the biggest links with it’s eBay days. Although eBay still hold a minority share holding their chosen CEO has now gone and the appointment of Tony Bates brings a wealth of experience to the company. Cisco is a giant in the field of IT and no small player in the voice market. Cisco have also been linked as a possible purchaser of Skype, but in the mean time Skype are still preparing for their initial public offering of shares.
