Zennstrom and Friis: Skype, the sequel
p2pnet news view | Products:- It seems the fight for Skype is almost over.
“Not that long ago, Michelangelo ‘Mike’ Volpi, 42, was one of the most important people in Silicon Valley,” says the Mercury News.
He was the Cisco Systems “golden boy,” its says.
But, it continues, he “surprised the tech world by walking away in December 2007, falling off the valley’s radar. Until now. In early September, he helped orchestrate the winning bid to acquire Skype from eBay. But his triumphant return to the valley’s dealmaking spotlight took an ugly turn.
“Volpi is now enmeshed in a legal swamp over his role in assembling a consortium of private investors to buy Skype in a deal worth $2.75 billion. It turns out that while Volpi was putting together this bid, he was working as CEO for another startup called Joost, whose founders were also interested in buying Skype.”
However, “A resolution of the litigation surrounding the service, which is owned by eBay, could be announced as soon as this week, according to several people who have been briefed on the situation,” according to the New York Times, which goes on:
“The proposed settlement is between a consortium of private equity investors, who successfully bid for Skype in September, and the original founders of Skype, who have filed several lawsuits in an effort to scuttle the consortium’s $1.9 billion deal to buy a majority of Skype from eBay.”
The deal would “restructure the group that is buying Skype,” says the story. Kazaa creators Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who came up with Skype and sold it to eBay in 2005, “would take a significant stake in the new Skype”.
“Index Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm whose partner, Michelangelo Volpi, was at the center of litigation over the Skype sale, is most likely withdrawing from the deal,” it states.
How much of Skype II will Zennstrom and Friis own?
That isn’t clear, says the story, “although they would receive at least one seat on the new company’s board”.
But it’s “crucial” they “drop their various lawsuits against eBay and the other Skype buyers,” it adds.
Mercury News – Silicon Valley golden boy caught in legal battle, November 2, 2009
New York Times – End to a Fight Over Skype May Be Near, November 3, 2009
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