socialmedian: DONE DEAL: eBay Settles Skype Lawsuit, Founders Return

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DONE DEAL: eBay Settles Skype Lawsuit, Founders Return

Source: mashable

Nov 06, 2009

Summary

After a saga that simply defied explanation, the eBay/Skype lawsuit has finally been settled. The founders of Skype have returned to their creation.

A recap of the story: eBay bought Skype for $2.6 billion back in 2005. Skype’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, got off with a nice sum, but haven’t been satisfied with eBay’s handling of their baby. At the same time, eBay also neglected to buy a key piece of P2P technology that powers Skype – one still owned by the Skype founders (Joltid). This gave the founders leverage against eBay, and they used it, threatening to end the license that powered Skype’s P2P technology.

While this turmoil was occurring, eBay sold Skype to a group of investors. The Skype founders didn’t like this, either. The result? They filed a hefty lawsuit that threatened to unravel the deal and even threatened Skype itself.

The Settlement

Now that saga has come to a close. The New York Times reports that the pending lawsuit from Zennstrom and Friis (one that called for $75 million per day in damages) has been settled in a way t

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