In the midst of the battle between Facebook and Google for Skype, analysts believe that the world’s largest social network is the more attractive partner for the popular web video telephony service.

Although the talks are still in the preliminary stages, any agreement may involve an outright takeover or a joint venture. The monetary value is placed at $3 billion to $4 billion but public offering is expected to raise $1 billion. Eric Jackson, founder and manager of Ironfire Capital, said that he was not surprised with the interest of both companies but believes that Skype will be more valuable to Facebook than Google.

Google already has voice chat and video capabilities but Skype offers a more robust product, said Rory Maher, an analyst from Hudson Square Research. Skype can be integrated to Google Voice and can achieve some social media credibility from it after failing to do so with Google Buzz.

On the other hand, Facebook will benefit more from Skype because it would encourage people to spend more time on the site than they already do. According to Mo Koyfman, principal at Spark Capital, communication is integral to Facebook users.

Skype is on its way to acquiring an IPO sometime in 2011, with an estimated $1 billion. Although it has 124 million connecting monthly as of the end of June, Skype only has 8.1 million paying customers using the service to make traditional phone calls at discounted rates.

Founded in 2003, Skype acquired eBay a couple of years later for $3.1 billion. eBay then sold its majority shares in Skype to an investor company in 2009, while maintaining 1/3 of the firm. Should it succeed in acquiring Skype, Facebook could tap new customers worldwide with the social media company gaining a new source of income.

In the first nine months of 2010, Facebook achieved a net income of $355 million on revenues of $1.2 billion. It is one of several companies that have expressed interest from investors eager to enter the social media bandwagon.

Analysts believe that Google’s desire for Skype is simply to keep it away from the hands of other companies.

Want to earn some spare money as a writer for us? Send us an email!