NYT: Skype Co-Founders Seek to Repurchase Firm From eBay

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 13, 2009 - 10:12am.

New York - The co-creators of Internet telephone service Skype, who sold their venture to eBay (NASD: EBAY) four years ago for $2.6 billion, are now looking to raise money to help finance a repurchase of the company from eBay, The New York Times reported. Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis "have approached several private equity firms and are pooling their own substantial resources to make a bid for the Internet calling service," people with knowledge of the plan told The Times.

Skype now counts 405 million registered users of its service, which permits low-cost, Internet-based phone calls, video calls and chat.

Analysts told The Times they believe eBay is looking to sell Skype for $1.7 billion.

One factor that could work in Zennstrom's and Friis's favor is an intellectual property dispute between Skype and eBay; the pair's Joltid peer-to-peer company recently terminated eBay's license to use the technology, on which Skype is based.

http://www.skype.com