networking vendor, Cisco is reported to be in talks to buy VoIP giant, Skype pre-empting a planning stock market listing by the company. Citing one of its "more reliable sources", the TechCruch website said that Skype is holding out for a valuation of around US$5 billion for the company.

Online auction website, eBay sold a majority stake in Skype late last year for US$2 billion to a group of investors that included the two founders of the company. The sale valued Skype at US$2.75 billion.

Earlier this month, the company announced plans to raise US$100 million by floating a small share on a US stock exchange.

Google was also rumored to be interested in making a bid for Skype, but antitrust concerns may have persuaded them not to make an actual offer.

Skype has 560 million registered users, of which 124 million are considered to be active on a monthly basis. Around 8.1 million of the users pay a monthly fee for additional services.. For the first six months of 2010, Skype reported revenue of US$406 million, and net profit of US$13.2 million.