VOIP and SIP News

The Voice Over Internet Protocol service Skype is being fought over by both Facebook and Google, according to news agency Reuters.

With 120 million estimated subscribers Skype is the world's most popular VoIP service and allows people all over the world to make free PC to PC phone calls as well as low cost calls from computer to landline.

The company is also preparing an IPO (Initial Public Offering) which could see it valued at a staggering $1 billion.

Perhaps then it is no surprise that the search giant Google and the social media leader Facebook see the untapped potential of Skype to further boost the connectivity and the reach of their business.

Both companies have ventured into the unified communications field with rumours of a Facebook phone coming almost simultaneously with the release of the Google call phones service.

Google may yet have to upper hand in this battle as they have recently bought ON2, which Skype states as a vital source of their technology.

A Skype statement explained that: "We licence various components of our technology from third parties including the VP7 video compression / decompression technology from On2."

On the other hand in 2010 Skype also penned a deal with Facebook to have give access for Skype users to the Facebook Phonebook and Newsfeed.

Skype will not come cheap to any company that tries to acquire it with some industry sources explaining that Skype could cost anywhere between $3-4 billion.