Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom are dropping suits against eBay, to whom they sold Skype in 2005, and against a consortium of private finance companies trying to buy Skype from eBay. The founders had accused both groups of intellectual property theft. They're dropping those lawsuits in exchange for 14 percent of Skype.

But former Wall Street Journal reporter Kara Swisher reported last night on Dow Jones' All Things D website that the founders would get not 14 percent but up to 13 percent of the company — 10 percent outright and an option to buy another 3 percent. Sacrebleu! Rob Wauters of rival TechCrunch was quick to rub Swisher's face in the minor error, writing that the founders "are getting 14 percent of Skype back for rights to the... technology their company... controls... and not 10% like previously reported by other media" (emphasis from original). Meow!

The press release issued by Skype actually confirmed Swisher's reporting that the founders had to put in money to get some of their shares. Swisher later acknowledged that the figure was 14 percent, just one percent higher than she had written. But she also engaged in a lengthy Twitter fight with Wauters and his colleague Erick Schonfeld (see below) over their public nitpicking and fact-bending. Maybe everyone involved in this fracas needs to take the next couple of days off. Oh, look at the calendar!

(Top pic via)

Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom (pictured) appeared to have it made before the computer wizardly was allegedly stolen. They had eBay, to whom they sold their internet phone-call service in 2005, on the ropes. The online auction company was trying to sell Skype, but Friis and Zennstrom's barrage of software-licensing and copyright lawsuits against eBay scared off potential buyers like Google. eBay, it seemed, would be forced to accept Friis and Zennstrom's own lowball offer to buy back Skype.

Then a consortium of private finance companies swooped in with an offer — ultimately accepted — valued at a cool $2.8 billion. It just so happened that one of the buyers, Index Ventures, employs a guy named Mike Volpi, who used to work for the Skype founders. One of Volpi's tasks for Friis and Zennstrom, according to their suit (embedded below), was to learn how to replace the "Global Index" software code at the heart of their various internet communications software, including Skype. Being able to remove this software would potentially moot many of Friis and Zennstrom's Skype lawsuits, thus making Skype much more valuable to its owner — the company Volpi now works for.

Friis and Zennstrom are alleging that ex-employee Volpi stole secrets from them, and breached his fiduciary duty as chairman of one of their companies, online video company Joost. In so doing, they are not only kicking off an epic, $2 billion nerdfight, they are also cementing their reputations as among the most litigious entrepreneurs in tech. In addition to suing eBay in both U.S. and British courts, and Volpi, they've also filed three separate lawsuits against the investment banker who represented them in their sale of Skype, according to the New York Times.

For a couple of guys whose product is revolutionizing global communication, Friis and Zennstrom have a distinctly old-fashioned way of sending a message.

Joost lawsuit

Coverage elsewhere: VentureBeat, TechCrunch

(Top pic by Steve Jurvetson)

The company ought to be swimming in cash from taking a cut of every auction it runs, right? Nope, according to the New York Times:

eBay had $3.19 billion in cash at the end of last year, but $2.8 billion of that money is overseas and would be subject to repatriation taxes if the company were to invest it in its ailing United States e-commerce marketplace, according to analysts.

Luckily, it's found some eager buyers: The founders of the startups it enriched through purchases. Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith (right) have just bought back StumbleUpon, a social-news startup it bought for $75 million two years ago, with the help of some venture capitalists. Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, the founders of Skype, are hoping to buy Skype for considerably less than the $3.1 billion price eBay paid for the company in 2005.

$390 million in the kitty isn't exactly bankrupt. But it's hardly enough to fund eBay's efforts to fix its U.S. marketplace and efforts to expand into consumer credit with Bill Me Later, an online-lending startup it bought last year.

Silicon Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs like to think they're putting their resources behind innovation. But what are they doing here? Funding middle America's shopping habits.

(Photo of Zennstrom and Friis via Joost)

We come at Joost or other platforms from the point of view that we cannot predict—nor did we in that case or any other case—predict which ones are going to be hugely successful, moderately successful, which won't work.

Previously:

• A is for Adelson, who cofounded Digg
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• B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big
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• F is for Fitzpatrick, and "hookers and blow"
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