OREANDA-NEWS. November 30, 2009. The Internet telephony company Skype plans to hire new engineers, especially those who want to live in Estonia, CEO Josh Silverman said in an interview with the GigaOM network of sites for technology news.

Skype that is doing much of its development work in Estonia needs new engineers primarily to develop the next-generation communications system.

According to Silverman, Europe will remain the company's base even though it has units in several parts of the world. Skype currently has 700 employees.

It appears from Skype's vacancies site that it is at present looking for 44 new emplopyees across the world, including 21 in Estonia.

The head of the Estonian unit, Sten Tamkivi, told BNS in a comment on recent changes in Skype's ownership that new owners do not signal immediate changes for Skype Estonia.

Skype's new supervisory board will gather at the end of the year to confirm next year's action plans, Tamkivi said.

"As the use of our products across the world still keeps growing fast, we obviously also have to grow our team to keep all those users happy," Tamkivi said, confirming an increase in Estonian staff.