Saturday, April 11, 2009

Morpheus Redux

Peer-to-peer technology mavens Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who along with Jaan Tallinn co-created the FastTrack protocol - at one time the largest P2P system in the world - have pooled their personal resources to buy internet phone giant Skype back from eBay, the company they sold it to several years ago for $3.7 billion in cash and considerations. Analysts generally believe the auction house would welcome a sale of the unit.

Complicating matters for eBay is the proprietary peer-to-peer code Skype depends on for connections. It's licensed to eBay from Joltid, a company Zennstrom and Friis control, and there are indications they're no longer interested in continuing the association. Their self-described supernode technology was also at the heart of file-sharing giant Morpheus and when that license was pulled in 2002 the social forums were shuttered and several hundred thousand members found themselves locked out of a dying platform. The company that owned Morpheus changed protocols but never regained its market share and is now bankrupt. Without this technology it's not clear if Skype, which presently commands nearly one out of 12 international calling minutes, can continue to function. An IP dispute could keep other buyers from stepping forward.

Ebay is reportedly looking for at least $1.7 billion for Skype. Zennstrom and Friis plan to bring in additional investors and perhaps get financing from eBay itself.

 - js.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home