Skype is Suing Ebay

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis have filed a lawsuit against Ebay, current owner of most of the shares of Skype.

Ebay confirmed its previously announced sale of Skype earlier this month, with the intention of turning over 65% of the company to investors of the Silver Lake Partners group. Ebay’s original intention was to simply buy-out Skype, pay-out its partners, and sell off the company to the investment group. However, a new development has put a crack in the sale.

The owners are claiming a Terms of Service violation based on the idea that Ebay revealed the technology powering the Skype service and technology. The suit is officially filed by the founders’ own company Joltid, the brains behind the Skype code. The company is looking for $75 million per day in damage payments. The numbers stem from Skype counting each download as copyright infringement, which estimates into costs of about $27 billion per year, as calculated by Mashable.

Skype has been known for their lawsuits as in the suit filed in the original sale of the company to Ebay. Whether or not the suit will go through profitably for the founders remains to be seen. From my own personal reasoning, I have to wonder if Skype really intends to try and back a figure that outrageous.

What do you think about these developments? Share your thoughts and opinions below.