Skype sale faces legal challenge from co-founders

Skype's co-founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom have sued eBay and the consortium that recently purchased a 65 percent stake [1] in the VoIP calling company for copyright infringement over the use of the underlying technology in Skype, which is currently held by another Friis-Zennstrom entity called Joltid. The suit, which seeks significant damages [2] for the operation of Skype by the new investors, was filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, and it comes as no surprise [3], according to IP communications veteran analyst Om Malik.

Friis and Zennstrom sued eBay in London on similar grounds after their interest in reacquiring Skype [4] was rebuffed by the online auction powerhouse, which, for some reason, didn't acquire the underlying Skype technology from Joltid in the original $3.1 billion purchase. In his article, Malik harkens back to a blog post he did at the time of the acquisition raising just that point, and if it occurred to Om, it is a little baffling why it didn't occur to eBay leadership, too.

Business Week speculates [2] that the lawsuit could cause the investor group to retract its bid for Skype, which would open the door again for eBay to relent to Friis and Zennstrom. But in August, Phil Wolff of the Skype Journal offered several reasons [5] that the lawsuits might not affect Skype as much as thought. As for eBay, it tweeted [6] that the "allegations and claims are without merit and are founded on fundamental legal and factual errors. We remain on track to close the transaction in the forth quarter of 2009." 

For more:
- see the BusinessWeek article on the legal brouhaha here [2]
- see the GigaOm post on the situation here [3] 

Related articles
eBay sells 65% stake in Skype for $2B [1]
Skype founders want to buy back company from eBay [4]
Joltid case might not affect Skype as much as predicted [5]