The European duo who created Skype and sold it to eBay for billions may have another trick up their sleeve: buying it back.Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype, have approached several private equity firms and are pooling their own substantial resources to make a bid for the Internet calling service, say several people with knowledge of their plans.The two men sold Skype to eBay in 2005 for $2.6 billion, and later received bonus payouts that increased the final price to $3.1 billion. Since then, Mr. Zennstrom, a native of Sweden, and Mr. Friis, of Denmark, have created the venture capital firm Atomico and backed the online video service Joost, both based in London.
http://nytimes.com/2009/04/11/technology/companies/11skype.html
European Duo Seeks to Buy Skype Back From EBay
The European duo who created Skype and sold it to eBay for billions may have another trick up their sleeve: buying it back.