EBay has completed its sale of Skype for about $2 billion to an investor group that included the founders of the Internet phone service.
Tag Archive: Skype
EBay Finally Sells Skype
eBay Moves Skype Sale Forward with Joltid Settlement
Seems as if online auction house eBay will be able to sell VoIP service Skype after all: eBay and an investment group including Silver Lake have reached a settlement with Joltid regarding the core peer-to-peer technology underlying Skype. The settlement ends all litigation with Joltid over Skype technology: suits in the U.S. and UK had threated to delay or derail eBay’s efforts to divest itself of Skype. Furthermore, as part of the settlement Skype founders janus Friis and Niklas Zennström will become minority investors in Skype, taking a 14 percent stake in the operation in exchange for Joltid technology and “a significant capital investment.”
AT&T Greenlights VoIP-over-3G for iPhone
iPhone users in the United States wanting to place calls via Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services like Skype have been forced to stick to the ghettos of Wi-Fi hotspots in order to place their low-cost calls…but AT&T finally says its network has the capacity to support VoIP on the iPhone, so users will be able to place VoIP calls via AT&T’s 3G network. AT&T says it has let both Apple and the Federal Communications Commission know about its change in policy; now all Apple has to do is approve VoIP-over-3G apps for the iPhone.
AT&T to Expand Internet Calling Services on iPhone
AT&T Inc. said late Tuesday that it will begin allowing iPhone owners to use Internet calling services on its wireless network.
The phone giant, the exclusive wireless provider for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, has until now allowed Internet calling services to work on the popular device only over Wi-Fi connections. Those connections generally have limited mobility and therefore present less of a competitive threat to AT&T’s core wireless calling business.
The move comes amid a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into competition in the wireless industry. Among other things, that inquiry will examine handset exclusivity deals, such as AT&T’s agreement with Apple giving AT&T exclusive access to the iPhone.
Suit Up: Skype’s Founders Sue eBay for Copyright Infringement
The legal tussle between Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis and online auction house eBay looks like it’s going to turn into a shooting war: Skype’s founders, via their company Joltid, have filed an infringement suit in the Northern California U.S. District Court accusing eBay and a group of its investors of infringing on Joltid’s intellectual property on a massive scale through continued operation of Skype services. Joltid wants an injunction that would prevent eBay from using Joltid’s intellectual property, as well as damages that Joltid “reasonably” believes could amount to $75 million per day.
Volpi Gets Un-Joost
Online video distribution company Joost—once positioned to be one of the major players in Internet video distribution—has announced that shareholders have removed high-profile executive Mike Volpi from his position as the chairman of the company’s board of directors. Prior to his role as chairman, Volpi had been serving as the company’s CEO, a role he stepped away from in June when the company announced it would be shuttering its own video service and instead work on providing so-called “white label” video distribution technology to other companies. Joost also announced it would be investigating Volpi’s actions as both CEO and chairman of Joost.
Best Software for Netbooks
Netbooks make fine travel machines for surfing, typing and watching videos, but as most new owners eventually discover, things start to get a little slow when you push too far beyond the basics. After all, 1.6GHz and 1GB of RAM can only take you so far. But you needn’t resign yourself to typing in Notepad and playing Minesweeper whenever you leave the big guns at home in favor of a netbook. We’ve rounded up some of the best lightweight software from across every category that will turn your netbook into a an all-around gaming, multimedia and productivity machine without slowing it to a crawl in the process. And the best part is, almost all of them are free.
Technology We’re Thankful For
Friends. Family. Gainful employment. A chance to dig into a big, juicy turkey with all the fixins and (fingers crossed) actually enjoy a full eight hours of sleep courtesy of a Tryptophan coma. These are tops on the list of things we’re truly thankful for this holiday season. But being the good consumerists and high-tech newshounds we are, we also have to give props where it’s really due – to all the shiny new gadgets and lifesaving technologies that let us squeeze 63 hours of fun and productivity into each and every day.
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