Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Legal spat seen threat to eBay's Skype IPO
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
A legal battle between eBay Inc. and the founders of its Skype has worsened, threatening to delay a planned spinoff of the Internet-phone business and lower the amount it fetches in an IPO.
The founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, still control some of Skype's software and have accused San Jose-based eBay of breaching a license agreement. If they follow through on threats to pull their technology, Skype will be disabled.
EBay, which has sued in Great Britain to head off the founders' threatened moves, has said it expects a 2010 initial public offering for the world's biggest international phone service would bring it more than $2 billion. The company bought Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion but later wrote down the value to $1.2 billion.
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