Skype co-founder says forecasts overshot

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Internet telecoms group Skype, said on Tuesday that the business, bought by EBay, had not performed as well as anticipated in the short term.

"We had to chart the trajectory of growth and how fast that would run, (but) we found out that was a bit front-loaded," Zennstrom told the annual ETRE technology conference in Hungary.

He added that he thought the company was growing at a satisfactory pace, but that more time was needed if the original valuation was ever to be realized.

"We overshot in terms of monetization ... Our position in the market has strengthened ... you need to look at the long-term value of companies," he said.

EBay said last week it would cut as much as $1.2 billion off the $4.3 billion potential price it agreed to pay for Web-based phone-calling service Skype two years ago.

The writedown on the value of the deal came as eBay said Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis had resigned as executives, and marked a tacit admission of lackluster returns from Skype since eBay acquired it two years ago.

The cofounders stepped down before reaching earn-out targets in 2008 and 2009, but Zennstrom would not say whether that meant he would have definitely have missed them.

"It (the final target) was two years away. The time value of money is significant," Zennstrom said, adding he wanted to focus more time investing cash in smaller companies.

EBay said it had paid $530 million to Skype shareholders, including Zennstrom, out of a possible $1.7 billion.

Zennstrom's other major venture is Joost -- an on-line video company -- which he said had opened to the public last week.

"There are different phases. First it was invitation only, now it is open to the public," he said on the sidelines of the conference following his speech.

Zennstrom co-founded Skype in 2003.