IP Democracy: Yup, Zennstrom is Out at Skype

Niklas Zennstrom, one of the co-founders of Skype, is officially out of the company as CEO, an all-but-certain outcome given the poor performance of Skype within its eBay corporate home and the public clucks of disapproval by eBay CEO Meg Whitman. Michael van Swaaij, eBay's Chief Strategy Officer, will become acting CEO.

Zennstrom and co-founder Janus Friis and other key stockholder walked away with $530 million under an earn-out agreement that originally called for paying the Skype guys $1.7 billion if Skype met certain targets.

It's clar that those targets won't ever be met. eBay is also posting a $900 million impairment charge on the $4.1 billion acquisition, announced in late-2005.

Not coincidentally, Joost, the online video start-up also founded by Zennstrom and Friis, is releasing its platform to the general public today. My guess: Zennstrom and Friis mentally checked out of Skype, and into Joost, once the eBay deal closed and the once-promising P2P VoIP provider just fizzled inside eBay.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 1, 2007 3:08 PM to IP Democracy