Sullivan & Cromwell has secured the lead role to advise Skype on its long-anticipated initial public offering (IPO), as the online communications company prepares to issue US shares worth about $100m (£63m), reports The Am Law Daily.

The US firm already has a relationship with Skype after London-based partner Richard Morrissey, the head of the firm's European M&A group, advised the consortium of investors that acquired a controlling stake in the company from eBay for about $2bn (£1.3bn) in September.

The lead members of the consortium include the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Andreessen Horowitz, and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners.

Sullivan also has a long history of advising Silver Lake on various deals. One of Skype's directors, Alain Carrier, is the current director of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and a former associate at Sullivan.

Skype, which allows its users to make audio and video calls over the internet, has grown rapidly in recent times, with registrants up 41% on last year to 560 million.

The company's founders, Niklas Jennstrom and Janus Friis, retain a minority stake in Skype after settling intellectual property litigation in which they claimed eBay and other parties misappropriated Skype's copyright-protected technology.

The Am Law Daily is a blog on law.com, Legal Week's US affiliate title.