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Skype Dispute Nears End, The Blackmailing Of Ebay (EBAY)
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An intellectual property dispute between Skype’s founders and the VoIP company, now owned by Ebay (NASDAQ:EBAY), threatened the auction company’s plans to sell Skype to private equity interests. That dispute is about to be settled, clearing the way for Skype to become independent.
Ebay will make $2 billion for selling about two-thirds of Skype. Skype’s founders have claimed that the VoIP company’s technology violates certain patents that they hold.
Several media accounts say that private equity firm Index Ventures Management S.A will drop from the buyout group and be replaced by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. This would presumably would give them the chance to profit from the company’s future success.
Ebay gets what it wants, no matter how the dispute is resolved. It exits a business which never fit with its auction operations or its PayPal online payment system and leaves behind the most embarrassing chapter in its history–the day it bought Skype.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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