Joltid

eBay Completes Sale of Skype Unit to Investor Group

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 20, 2009 - 9:34am.

San Jose, Calif. - Nearly three months after first announcing the deal, online auction giant eBay (NASD: EBAY) said that it has completed the sale of a majority stake in its Skype Internet telephone business to an investment group headed by Silver Lake Partners. Under the deal, the investor group -- which also included Joltid Limited, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz -- paid $1.9 billion and a $125 million note in exchange for a 70% stake in the unit.

Skype Creators Seek Injunction Against Former Joost CEO Volpi

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 15, 2009 - 9:00am.

Wilmington, Del. - The creators of peer-to-peer services Kazaa, Skype and Joost have asked a federal court for an injunction against former Joost CEO Mike Volpi and Index Ventures, where he is now a partner, to prevent them from using trade secrets in their bid to acquire Skype from eBay. Developers Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis allege that Volpi breached his duties to Joost while employed there by dangling a prospective workaround -- that would eliminate the need for Skype to use Zennstrom's and Friis' peer-to-peer technology -- to investors looking to acquire Skype from eBay (NASD: EBAY).

Skype Founders Sue eBay for Copyright Infringement

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 17, 2009 - 9:41am.

San Francisco - Joltid, the company operated by Skype and Kazaa creators Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, has filed a copyright infringement suit against Skype parent company eBay (NASD: EBAY), which could have an adverse affect on eBay's $2 billion sale of the Internet telephone company to a group of investors, The Wall Street Journal reported. The pair left Skype two years after eBay acquired the company from them for $2.6 billion in 2005, but retained the rights to the service's underlying peer-to-peer technology.