[Rolo]

A bit pricey...

$3 billion : 162 million "downloads" (not registered users) = $18.51 per downloaded version
$3 billion : 53 million "registered users" (not paying users) = $56.60 per registered user
$3 billion : 2 million "paying users" = $1500.00 per paying user

I know of cellphone companies that have paid $250-300 per paying user, and they had high profits on the per minute billing... skype is selling a small profit margin minutes and is getting $1500 per paying user. I can see how its not a telco company that is bidding the $3 billion - they must be looking for something more to make this a good business. And you can be sure that MS and Google is getting ready to fight it out in this sector - a very good time to sell if I was Skype.