
The Plot Thickens: Skype Founders And Joost Sue Former Chairman And CEO - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/18/joost-sues-former-chairman-and-ceo-mike-volpi/
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dcurtis
This is ridiculous. I am starting find it hard to take these guys seriously
now that they're going around suing everyone in a seemingly arbitrary manner.

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pyre
It's not really arbitrary. It breaks down like this:

1) eBay bought Skype, but agreed to license the core technology the drives
Skype. This was a bone-headed move on their part. It's like buying a house,
but agreeing to not own the land that it's built on, instead leasing/renting
that land from the current owner

2) The founders of Skype decided that they wanted to buy back Skype from eBay,
but in response eBay announces that they want to spin off Skype into its own
separate company with an IPO.

3) The Skype founders pull the licensing deal for the core of Skype from eBay,
then sue them for using Skype tech without a license.

4) eBay decides to sell Skype. No one wants to touch the deal because a
ownership of a house is worthless without ownership of the land it's sitting
on.

5) The former CEO of Joost has insider knowledge of how the core tech of Skype
works because it was also used in Joost. Using the same analogy he basically
knows an easy and cheap way to move the house off the land it's currently on
so that no one needs to keep paying rent to the land's current owner in order
to use the house. In this case, he knows how easy it is/will be to transition
Skype to be web-based and get around its current core technology. He uses this
knowledge to rally a bunch of investors into making an aggressive bid for
Skype.

6) Skype founders sue former CEO of Joost for using insider knowledge that he
obtained while he was with the company. (i.e. other investors were at a
disadvantage without the same knowledge)

