EBay Settles Lawsuit Filed By Skype Founders

RACHEL METZ

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — EBay Inc. has settled a legal skirmish with the founders of Skype that threatened to complicate eBay's plans to sell most of the Internet phone service to a group of investors for $2 billion.

The online marketplace operator said Friday the settlement gives Skype ownership of critical software that had been licensed from Joltid Ltd., which is a company founded by Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. The settlement effectively ends Zennstrom and Friis' litigation against the investor group and eBay.

In return, Zennstrom and Friis will get a 14 percent stake in Skype. They also agreed to make a "significant" capital investment in Skype, eBay said.

When eBay announced the sale in September — after exploring plans to spin out Skype through a public stock offering — it said the investor group would buy 65 percent of Skype for $1.9 billion in cash and $125 milion to be paid later. EBay was to own the remaining 35 percent.

Now with the stake going to Zennstrom and Friis, the investor group will own 56 percent of Skype, while eBay will keep 30 percent.