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Skype taps Cisco vet as chief exec

Hello, IPO

Skype has named Cisco veteran Tony Bates as its new CEO.

As first reported by TechCrunch, Bates will take over as chief exec at the end of the month. Current CEO Josh Silverman is leaving the company, and until Bates grabs the reigns, CFO Adrian Dillion will serve as acting CEO.

Bates is the senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's enterprise, commercial, and small business group, a $20 billion operation that accounts for 70 per cent of the company's business. The group spans 12,000 employees.

Before running the group, Bates was the senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's service provider business unit, a $10 billion operation. Before that, he was the vice president and general manager of Cisco’s high-end router business, where he oversaw strategy and development of Cisco’s flagship CRS-1 router, GSR, and Multi-Service WAN (MGX) product lines.

He has also served on the board of YouTube, and before joining Cisco he oversaw the backbone-engineering strategy for Internet MCI, MCI’s national IP backbone.

Now that it's been spun back off from eBay, Skype has filed to go public, and it would appear that an IPO is indeed in the cards — Facebook merger rumors not withstanding. ®

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