Skype sell off in doubt as founders sue new owners

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 21 Sep 2009 at 09:30

EBay's Skype sell off could be under threat after the VoIP company's founders decided to sue the potential buyers.

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are already suing eBay over the alleged theft of the technology that underpins Skype.

Now the pair have turned their legal fire on the potential buyers, Index Ventures and one of its partners, Mike Volpi. The pair accuse Volpi of stealing trade secrets to help broker the sale of Skype.

"Volpi has maliciously and willfully breached his fiduciary duties," the plaintiffs claim in their lawsuit.

Volpi was until recently the chairman of Joost, the web-TV firm set up by Zennstrom and Friis in the aftermath of Skype. However, Volpi was fired from the role last week, with Joost claiming that it was "conducting an investigation into Mr Volpi's actions during his tenure as CEO and as Chairman."

The ongoing acrimony will raise further doubts over whether the sale of Skype will actually go through. Ironically, Volpi's close relationship with the Skype founders was originally seen as a boost for the buyout, helping to smooth out any potential legal wrangles that could arise over the disputed Skype technology. Now it appears to be the biggest barrier to progress.

EBay had previously admitted it was working on new VoIP technology for Skype, just in case the legal action proved successful. However, the auction site will be more than reluctant to take back Skype, having publicly stated that it has little benefit to the company's core auction business.