They are not particularly interested in stories about investing for future growth that might deliver returns three years from now. They want stocks that will generate strong returns over the next 12 months. Traders and analysts have extremely short-term investment outlooks. Investors in listed companies want businesses that deliver predictable, stable profits that will hit their financial projections every time. It's not going to become a quoted company, in my opinion. Looking at this deal, I am pretty sure where Skype will end up. There are three main exit routes for the owners of companies such as Skype – trade sale, flotation or sale to a private-equity or venture-capital investor. So what kind of task is facing the owners of Skype? How will they get fair value ? Assets get oversold, then overbought, etc – but the theory is that the perfect market will find the equilibrium of fair value in the long term. Of course, markets fluctuate and are full of imperfections. If you believe in the theory of the perfect market – that only rationally relevant information is priced into an asset – then the exit route found for Skype looks set to be a fascinating case study in finding the true value of an internet company.

So we will all be watching what happens with Skype and judging the ability of Silver Lake to do what private-equity investors do. Witness the price that eBay paid for Skype – a great business, but one that the buyer paid too much for. How we value and manage that change, though, is still a mystery to many. My mantra was then, as it is now, that internet will change our lives for ever. The mini-crash that followed was all too predictable.

The example of the silicon boom on Nasdaq was one that European venture capitalists were only too eager to copy. Ten years ago, many Europeans were infected by the irrational exuberance. I have had personal experience of the enjoyable insanity that was the first wave of internet euphoria to hit Europe in the late 1990s. Managing and valuing internet businesses is still a much sought-after skill. Even if the considerable expertise of the private-equity chappies does not balance the equation for eBay, the sigh of relief from California is almost audible – even here in chilly old London. Silver Lake, the lead investor, will look to find a profitable exit route in the next few years, which may see eBay recoup its cash.

Now, eBay has divested itself of 65 per cent of the shares to some private-equity investors at a price which puts a $2.75bn tag on Skype. Skype, an internet communication company, was purchased by eBay well after the first bubble technology-stock burst in 2005 for a sum of more than $3.1 billion (Dh11.38bn). It appears that internet businesses still have not found a sensible valuation model, all these years on. So what was all the hype – sorry, Skype – about? The answer seems to be that, even now, no-one really knows.

Skype stock prices