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It may sound fairly bland on paper, but the potential implications here are notable. Tony Bates, who was seen as a major player within Cisco reporting directly to CEO John Chambers, has just left to take over the CEO role at Skype. Cisco's own blog affirmed that Bates was leaving "to pursue another opportunity," and The New York Times has it that Joshua Silverman is stepping aside to make room for Mr. Bates. He'll arrive just in time to ... make a serious push for an IPO, grab more profit from its blossoming user base (which largely doesn't pay anything to make Skype-to-Skype calls) and possibly "make a deeper push into carrier and enterprise markets," as GigaOM puts it. Frankly, we'd be interested in seeing if any leftover synergies (yeah, we said it) could lead to a Skype-enabled Flip Video camcorder. Bates would obviously have great contacts with Cisco in order to make it happen, and honestly, it'd be a win-win for both parties. Crazier things have happened, right?

Continue reading Skype lands Cisco's Tony Bates as new CEO

Skype lands Cisco's Tony Bates as new CEO originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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