Shock threat to shut Skype

By dvb2000
in Back Page News

 Share

Recommended Posts

Mentor

dvb2000

Posted
Posted

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/...90731-e3qe.html

eBay says it may have to shut down Skype due to a licensing dispute with the founders of the internet telephony service.

The surprise admission puts a cloud over the 40 million active daily users around the world who use Skype for business or to keep in touch with friends and far-flung relatives.

A recent study by market researcher TeleGeography found Skype carried about 8 per cent of all international voice traffic, making it the world?s largest provider of cross-border voice communications.

The online auction powerhouse bought Skype from entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis for $US2.6 billion in 2005, but this did not include a core piece of peer-to-peer communications technology that powers the software.

eBay has since been licensing the technology from the founders? new company, Joltid, but the pair recently decided to revoke the licensing agreement.

The matter is now the subject of a legal battle in the English High Court of Justice, with eBay trying to force Joltid to let it continue using the technology.

In a quarterly report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, eBay said in no uncertain terms that if it lost the right to use the software it would most likely have to shut Skype down.

eBay said it was working on developing ??alternative software?? to that licensed through Joltid, but this ??may not be successful, may result in loss of functionality or customers even if successful, and will in any event be expensive??.

??If Skype was to lose the right to use the Joltid software as the result of the litigation, and if alternative software was not available, Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype?s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible,?? eBay wrote.

In the filing eBay also said that, even if it was successful in developing alternative software, the technical challenge of assuring backward compatibility with older versions of Skype?s technology ??may be difficult to overcome??.

This was echoed by analysts, with the Info-Tech Research Group?s Jayanth Angl telling Bloomberg that ??it would be quite difficult to replace what they already have as the underlying component to their service??.

??There are a number of barriers to that, not the least of which are legal barriers,? he said.

The case is set to go to trial in June next year, which could seriously hinder eBay?s plans to spin Skype off as a separate company in a public stock offering next year.

Already, eBay has had to write down Skype on its books to $US1.7 billion, an admission that the business is not worth nearly as much as it originally paid for it. However, its revenues for the second quarter grew 25 per cent to $US170 million.

But, even though Skype has not been a major financial success, it has succeeded in becoming the dominant internet telephony service globally.

Skype has more than 480 million user accounts - almost twice as many as Facebook - and the application comes bundled with more than 50 mobile phones and even the Sony PSP.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/804722-shock-threat-to-shut-skype/
Share on other sites
Grand Master

+Ryster Subscriber²

Posted
  • Subscriber²
Posted
This is great news! eBay really deserve whatever they get for constantly raising their fees. It's not like they're short of money. :crazy:

It's not like they're a business out to make money or anything like that. /sarcasm

The only way to tell a company that their prices are too high is to stop buying their products. As long as you continue to pay those high fees, they'll continue charging them.

Grand Master

Comic Book Guy

Posted
Posted
Crickey! Skype shutdown would be a major problem for me and my contacts...

See the post above yours, there are two alternatives, Gizmo5 is more Skype-like, but VoxOx is the new app on the block and gets my vote.

Mentor

Inklin

Posted
Posted

They can't just shut down skype, there would be massive outcry on all corners of the globe and I suppose there will be a lot of unhappy companies... I was thinking of changing my phone to 3 UK for the free skype abilities but this has put me off until I know skype is safe!

Grand Master

Chicane-UK Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
See the post above yours, there are two alternatives, Gizmo5 is more Skype-like, but VoxOx is the new app on the block and gets my vote.

New offerings are all well and good but there are a LOT of services now dependent on Skype. There are are countless devices made and sold specifically to work with Skype - even the mobile network "3" here in the UK market a phone which is exclusively a Skype mobile phone.

Add into that the companies who depend on Skype for business, and have Skype-in numbers, etc - it does add up to make a headache that a lot of companies who sell products based on Skype and companies / people who use Skype could really do without! :(

It's an unacceptable situation frankly.

Enthusiast

Futurix

Posted
Posted
See the post above yours, there are two alternatives, Gizmo5 is more Skype-like, but VoxOx is the new app on the block and gets my vote.

It will take a lot of time for all my contacts (including my non-techy parents) to switch to something else...

And VoxOx is too US-oriented. Not sure about Gizmo5, cannot find anything about UK in numbers on their website.

Grand Master

Comic Book Guy

Posted
Posted
It will take a lot of time for all my contacts (including my non-techy parents) to switch to something else...

And VoxOx is too US-oriented. Not sure about Gizmo5, cannot find anything about UK in numbers on their website.

VoxOx is not US oriented, I am in Canada, signed up no problem, why because it does international.

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted
Well quite, if Skype wasn't closed source, you don't get issues regarding licensing happening. Hopefully if eBay decide to re-release Skype without the licensed part, they decide to open-source Skype to protect it in the future.

Open source doesn't magically avoid licensing issues.

Grand Master

Vykranth

Posted
Posted

The whole story is probably the tip of the iceberg shadowing some backstage negociations for a renewal of license between Skype and Joltid. EBay is trying to make Joltid the bad guys which cling to their patents and licenses.

A beautiful example of modern greed and gullibility.

Grand Master

+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted
New offerings are all well and good but there are a LOT of services now dependent on Skype. There are are countless devices made and sold specifically to work with Skype - even the mobile network "3" here in the UK market a phone which is exclusively a Skype mobile phone.

Add into that the companies who depend on Skype for business, and have Skype-in numbers, etc - it does add up to make a headache that a lot of companies who sell products based on Skype and companies / people who use Skype could really do without! :(

It's an unacceptable situation frankly.

Quite frankly, it's their own fault for depending on a service not under their control. I think a similar thing could happen with Twitter, were it ever to shut down suddenly.

I put the blame for the entire problem, however, squarely on eBay on this one.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months

      By Jaybonaut · Posted

      Couple years ago I got a brand new 4TB Samsung 990 Pro for $250 during Black Friday
    • Sparkle 2.20.0

      By Jaybonaut · Posted

      Thanks
    • You pay just $100 per TB with this rare 4TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD deal

      By Jaybonaut · Posted

      Can confirm, I've built stuff for others and no complaints using their products.
    • Mozilla highlights Firefox Nova 2026 redesign and more upcoming features with new roadmap

      By Jaybonaut · Posted

      Yes I agree, it's annoying. You can now miss tabs unless you point low enough.
    • Sysinternals Suite 2026.17.06

      By Copernic · Posted

      Sysinternals Suite 2026.17.06 by Razvan Serea The Sysinternals Suite is a comprehensive package of advanced Windows utilities created by Mark Russinovich, who launched the Sysinternals website in 1996 to share his system tools and technical resources. This suite combines a wide range of troubleshooting and diagnostic tools, including Process Explorer, Process Monitor, Sysmon, Autoruns, ProcDump, the PsTools collection, and many others. It provides everything IT professionals and developers need to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot Windows systems and applications. The Suite bundles all of the core troubleshooting utilities along with their help files. Non-troubleshooting extras—such as the BSOD Screen Saver or NotMyFault—are excluded. In addition to the well-known tools, it also includes AccessChk, Autologon, Ctrl2Cap, DiskView, Disk Usage (DU), LogonSessions, PageDefrag, PsLogList, PsPasswd, RegMon, RootkitRevealer, TCPView, VMMap, ZoomIt, and more. Sysinternals Suite 2026.17.06 changelog: Autoruns v14.3 - This update to Autoruns, a utility for monitoring startup items, adds bug fixes and improves the command-line application autorunsc. ZoomIt v12.1 - This update to ZoomIt, a screen magnification and annotation tool, adds image backgrounds, webcam background blur and microphone noise cancellation support. Coreinfo v4.01 - This update to Coreinfo, a tool that reports processor, socket, NUMA memory, and cache topology of a system, as well as processor features supported, adds support for new processor features. DebugView v5.02 - This update to DebugView, a tool for displaying both kernel-mode and Win32 debug output, adds Ctrl-Shift-A support for selecting all output, and agent skills support for the CLI utility. LiveKd v5.64 - This update to LiveKd, a utility that allows running the kernel debugger on a live system, fixes a debugging privileges issue. ProcDump 3.5.2 for Linux - This update to ProcDump for Linux, a tool for capturing process dumps, adds .NET counters and a custom core dumper. Process Monitor v4.04 - This update to Process Monitor, a utility for observing real-time file system, Registry, and process or thread activity, adds some bug fixes Sysmon v15.21 - This update to Sysmon, an advanced host security monitoring tool, adds some bug fixes. Download: Sysinternals Suite 2026.17.06 | 168.0 MB (Freeware) Download: Sysinternals Suite for ARM64 | 15.4 MB Link: Sysinternals Suite Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      eurospharma62 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      With What earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      Harris Gilbert earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Vincian earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      542
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      167
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      85
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      64
    5. 5
      neufuse
      64
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!