Skype deal averts shutdown, allows sale

Skype's founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis are to regain some of their control over the company as part of a deal that will let Skype carry on using its core peer-to-peer technology. The deal means Skype's owner eBay can go through with its plans of selling off a majority stake in the VoIP firm to the Silver Lake investor group. On Friday, eBay said Silver Lake had reached a settlement agreement with Zennström and Friis's company Joltid, which owns the Global Index Software P2P technology. "Skype will be well positioned to move forward under new owners with ownership and control over its core technology," eBay chief executive John Donahoe said in a statement. "At the same time, eBay continues to retain a significant stake in Skype and will benefit from its continued growth. We look forward to closing the deal and focusing on growing our core e-commerce and payments businesses."

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