Niklas Zennström

When eBay sought to sell a majority stake in Skype, a dispute arose between Skype/eBay and Joltid, Zennström and Friis's company, over rights to the underlying peer-to-peer technology. The litigation threatened the transaction before a comprehensive settlement transferred the technology to Skype and gave the founders a stake in the company.

State of the evidence

litigation and settlement documented

Legal status — source text

civil proceedings settled; no criminal finding of guilt

Attribution

Zennström was Joltid's co-founder and a central party to the contractual/IP dispute over technology used by Skype

Joost, the video platform launched by Zennström and Friis after Skype, failed to achieve a sustainable market share and substantially reduced its operations. The British company entered liquidation in 2009 after a strategic repositioning failed to reverse its decline.

State of the evidence

liquidation and commercial difficulties documented

Legal status — source text

no personal legal proceedings

Attribution

entrepreneurial responsibility as co-founder; commercial failure is not equated with wrongdoing

Kazaa, founded by Zennström and Janus Friis around the FastTrack protocol, was at the centre of major litigation concerning file-sharing services' liability. Assets linked to the service were transferred to Sharman Networks during the litigation period, and courts delivered differing rulings depending on the country and defendants.

State of the evidence

litigation and court decisions documented

Legal status — source text

multiple civil proceedings; no personal criminal conviction retained

Attribution

responsibility as founder and developer of FastTrack/Kazaa technology, without converting litigation against successive companies into personal criminal guilt

Under Zennström's leadership, Chinese joint venture TOM-Skype filtered certain terms prohibited by Chinese authorities. Zennström publicly defended the approach as an obligation to comply with local law, triggering controversy over censorship and the responsibility of technology companies operating in China.

State of the evidence

filtering practices and executive's public statements documented

Legal status — source text

no personal criminal proceedings retained

Attribution

Skype management responsibility during introduction of filtering; 2008 revelations on message storage after his departure from management must not be attributed to him

Two years after acquiring Skype, eBay announced Zennström's departure as CEO, a settlement of the earn-out substantially below its original maximum, and an impairment charge of approximately 630 million euros relating to Skype. The episode fuelled criticism of the acquisition price and expected performance.

State of the evidence

official financial announcement and management change documented

Legal status — source text

no personal legal proceedings

Attribution

management responsibility as co-founder and CEO until October 2007; eBay's accounting impairment is not an offence