- Fox CEO wants US to join France on Internet piracy
- Newspaper circulation may be worse than it looks
- GE, Vivendi talks over NBC Universal stretch on
- B&N Nook sells out, too late for holiday orders
- Dell's profit, stock drop on weak quarterly report
- AOL offers buyouts to over a third of work force
- Google's Chrome OS to be ready for 2010 holidays
- Google adding automatic captions to YouTube videos
MOST SHARED
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
- Why Amazon Rules Retail
- Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Government
- China Eastern to Complete Shanghai Air Buy by End '09
- Paul: Audit the Fed
- The Social Media Gaming Threat
- Gold Will Collapse Like Oil Did in 2008: Charts
- Prepare For Large Decline In Stocks, Next Year?
- JAL Slides to Record Low on Bankruptcy Jitters
- Lyondell Urged to Consider Reliance Takeover Offer
- How Many US Consumers Will Shop this Weekend?
- Tuesday's Heavy Dose of Data to Dictate 'Risk' Behavior
- World's Largest Share Issue Priced at Deep Discount
- Obama says Boosting US Jobs is Top Priority
- Why the Dollar Will Likely Stay Weak for Some Time
- Playboy to Outsource Most Magazine Operations: Report
- General Motors to Cut up to 9,500 Jobs in Europe
- EU Drops Proceedings Against Qualcomm
- Appeals Court Denies Microsoft's Alcatel Petition
Text Size 
EBay said Friday that private investors looking to buy Skype had agreed to settle litigation with Skype's founders, who will get a 14-percent stake in the Internet phone service in the transaction.
 |
CNBC.com |
EBay [EBAY
Loading...
()
], which is selling Skype in order to focus on its core online auction and payments business, said the group led by Silver Lake reached a settlement with Joltid and Joost, the companies of Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.
Under the agreement, Silver Lake and investors including Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), will together hold 56 percent of Skype and eBay will retain 30 percent.
The buyers will no longer include Index Ventures. The Skype founders had filed a lawsuit accusing Index and its partner Michelangelo Volpi of using confidential information in their bid to acquire a 65 percent stake in Skype.
Under the deal, eBay will get approximately $1.9 billion in cash and a note from the buyer worth $125 million. The deal values Skype at $2.75 billion and is not subject to a financing condition. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009, eBay said.
Zennstrom and Friis will contribute Joltid software and make a significant capital investment in exchange for their stake in the company.
The agreement gives Skype ownership over all software previously licensed from Joltid and ends all litigation pending against the investor group and eBay at the closing of the acquisition.
Andreessen Horowitz founder Marc Andreessen, who also founded Netscape Communications, said he sees better growth prospects for Skype as a private company, including more flexibility to make strategic investments.
"We have very ambitious goals in terms of products and product strategies," Andreessen said, citing mobile as one area for growth.
The technology entrepreneur said that his firm Andreessen Horowitz would continue to work with Index Ventures on different deals and said that the firms were currently in talks about two other technology investment opportunities. He declined to be more specific.
- A diet high in fat and sugar might actually be good for your portfolio.
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates discuss the economy and other subjects with CNBC's Becky Quick.
- From the AIG&T to the Merrill Lychee, Jane Wells lists this year's fashionable holiday cocktails.
- One shopper explains why – aside from the prices – he gets up at 3am on the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping every year.
- Congressman Ron Paul explains to Squawk Box why he’s pushing legislation to audit the Federal Reserve.
- …you'll want to be prepared. Tips for getting the most out of the post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes