Swedish founder keen on Skype buyback
The Swedish and Danish founders of Skype, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are interested in buying back the IP communication company.
Zennström and Friis burst to prominence and wealth when they sold their creation, Skype, to US online auction website Ebay for $2.6 billion in 2005.
The pair are now interested in buying back the firm, and according to a report in the New York Times, Ebay is willing to do a deal.
According to the newspaper, Ebay has set a price tag of at least $1.7 billion for Skype.
The number of users on Skype has exploded since Ebay's purchase in 2005, from 53 million to 405 million. But despite the increase revenues were a meagre $145 million in the final quarter of 2008.
The firm has struggled to get users to pay for add- on services and most use only the free PC to PC calls and chat function.
Ebay CEO John Donahoe has given several indications that he is prepared to do business over Skype. The newspaper could not however confirm whether Ebay had conducted any direct negotiations with the Scandinavian partners.
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Zennström and Friis burst to prominence and wealth when they sold their creation, Skype, to US online auction website Ebay for $2.6 billion in 2005.
The pair are now interested in buying back the firm, and according to a report in the New York Times, Ebay is willing to do a deal.
According to the newspaper, Ebay has set a price tag of at least $1.7 billion for Skype.
The number of users on Skype has exploded since Ebay's purchase in 2005, from 53 million to 405 million. But despite the increase revenues were a meagre $145 million in the final quarter of 2008.
The firm has struggled to get users to pay for add- on services and most use only the free PC to PC calls and chat function.
Ebay CEO John Donahoe has given several indications that he is prepared to do business over Skype. The newspaper could not however confirm whether Ebay had conducted any direct negotiations with the Scandinavian partners.
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