Skype founders may have a deal

According to GigaOm, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype and now Joltid, are on the verge of an agreement with Silver Lake Partners and eBay that will allow the sale of Skype to go through and settle the grievances the two had with the company. Friis and Zennstrom had sued eBay and the consortium that recently purchased a 65 percent stake 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 founders recently filed an injunction against Mike Volpi and Index Ventures in an attempt to derail the purchase.

As part of the deal Zennstrom and Friis will probably get board representation at Skype while the investors they've had issues with will not be allowed to participate in the purchase of the 65 percent share in Skype. Originally the founders were angry with eBay and Mike Volpi, former CEO of Joost and part of the Index Ventures investment company, for allegedly not paying royalties on the underlying technology that allows Skype to make VoIP calls. As part of the agreement, Volpi won't be able to be part of the investment group buying the company while Skype will get to use the Global Index software that Skype runs on and the two founders own.

For more:
- read this GigaOm article

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