Tech & Biz

Skype Shutdown Threat over Joltid Licensing

by Jordan Yerman | July 31, 2009 at 05:50 pm

1288 views | 26 Recommendations | 2 comments

Skype could possibly get shut down over a licensing dispute with Joltid, which developed Skype many years ago. When eBay bought Skype for $3.1 billion in 2005, it did not buy a core element of the underlying technology which powers the popular VOIP service.

This is a huge setback for eBay, who hoped to take Skype public: without new licensing, eBay would be runnign Skype illegally. This gives Skype's original creators a boost in their quest to eventually buy Skype back from eBay.

The internet auction company paid a total of $3.1bn for the telephone service between 2005 and 2007 and is now locked in a legal battle with the technology's owner, Joltid, a company owned by Skype's founders.

Should Joltid force Skype to give up its core technology, Skype would either die or need a full rebuild. Neither scenario will take place soon, though, as the legal battle will be long.

The case has arisen because Joltid, set up in 2001 by Zennström and Janus Friis – who both went on to found Skype in 2003 – licenses its software to Skype, which enables the company to build its huge internet telephony system, which connects millions of computers.

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Uwe Paschen

at 01:36 on August 1st, 2009

That would really be down turn. I think I would not like it at all.

Anonymously Given (not verified)

at 06:10 on August 4th, 2009

It might "boil down" to whether or not there was full disclosure within the context of the original negotiations for the property.

A quick read of this headline makes it sound a little bit akin to the idea of selling a house, but not the land under it, and maybe not making that aspect of the deal very apparent at the deal closing. (It must be that I do not understand some aspect of this story that surely exonerates the original Skype guys and their position). Otherwise, it's just too far over the top.