Skype posts $153m Q1 revenue

With an IPO looming next year, Skype has posted another set of positive numbers.

The VoIP specialist hiked first quarter revenue 21% to $153.2 million and added 37.9 million new subscribers, up 43% year-on-year. It ended the quarter with over 443.2 million registered users.

Skype recorded 2.9 billion SkypeOut minutes - a 65% growth - and 23.6 billion Skype-to-Skype minutes, up 67%.

Skype parent company eBay announced  in April that it would float Skype via an IPO in the first half of 2010, admitting the company had found it hard to find synergies between Skype and eBay\'s main business.

The news came days after Skype\'s founders said  they wanted to buy the company back from eBay.

eBay\'s total revenue fell $171.6 million to $2.02 billion in Q1. Its net income was $357.1 million.