Skype Founders Raise Money to Buy it Back

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis became billionaires when the sold the Internet phone company to eBay in 2005 for over $3 billion. Since selling their baby, the duo hasn’t slowed down – they’ve founded a venture capital firm and supported video service Joost.

Now, however, it seems that the two have another business move in mind – buying back Skype. When eBay bought the service, it had around 53 million users, but today, there are more than 405 million people using Skype to make free calls between one another and very cheap international calls to non-Skype users. In the fourth quarter of 2008 alone, Skype posted $145 million in revenue. According to research, Skype is the company of choice for about 8% of all international calling minutes.

eBay’s CEO, John J. Donahoe, has said multiple times that he’d be willing to sell Skype for the right price, and sources close to Zennstrom and Friis say that the two have already raised about $1 billion from private investors to put towards purchasing Skype. Experts say that eBay is probably looking for a sale price of at least $1.7 billion.

In the past, the founders and eBay have had their differences, and they’re still disputing whether or not they had breached their contract with Joltid, another service Zennstrom and Friis created. Selling Skype to anyone else is unlikely until this dispute is settled, which could take months or even years. If Zennstrom and Friis purchase the service, it could be a much-needed boost for eBay’s United States division.

Image via skype.com.