Skype Hires A New CEO From Cisco

Tony Bates

Skype, which filed for an IPO in August, is now bringing in an outsider as CEO. The company has hired Tony Bates, an SVP at Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) who leads the company’s enterprise, commercial and small business group, as its CEO, according to various reports. Bates oversees 12,000 employees at Cisco and more than $20 billion in sales, according to his corporate biography. Skype’s annual revenue is about one-twentieth of that.

Bates is succeeding Josh Silverman, the former head of eBay’s Shopping.com unit, who has led Skype for nearly three years. No comment yet from Skype, although Cisco is confirming that Bates has left.

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