The New York Times is reporting that an end may be in sight for the long-running litigation surrounding Skype’s technology. The proposed settlement would see Skype’s creators, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, take a significant share in the company. Index Ventures, the London-based VC company currently part of the group buying Skype, is said to be withdrawing from the deal; Index partner Mike Volpi is a one-time colleague of Zennstrom and Friis, and they had sought to bar him from using confidential information to benefit Index in the deal.
While all parties are said to “sound optimistic that there’s a settlement”, the detail isn’t yet clear: it’s not known how much of Skype Zennstrom and Friss would control, though they would receive one seat on Skype’s board, and the deal is said to be conditional upon them dropping all litigation against eBay and the other parties involved in the Skype purchase.
Spokesmen for both Zennstrom and Friis, and eBay, declined to comment on the rumours.
