Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 18 at 4:31 am PT
Stockholm-based Wrapp, which was founded by former executives from Spotify, Groupon and other companies, has just received a $5 million gift from Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners.
Peter Kafka in News on May 10, 2011 at 2:11 pm PT
Microsoft already owns a streaming music service (remember Zune?). Now it’s buying a company with ties to another one. That’s one music service too many.
Kara Swisher in News on May 10, 2011 at 12:28 am PT
When a group of powerful investors, including Silver Lake Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, waded into the mess at Skype less than two years ago with a $1.9 billion cash investment for a big chunk of the company, it was–how can BoomTown put this delicately–a hot mess.
Now–with Microsoft poised to pay over $8 billion for the Internet telephony and voice communications company–it is a lucrative one.
Ina Fried in Mobile on March 10, 2011 at 8:05 am PT
After years of wishing venture capitalists would take an interest in what they did, the folks at Rovio managed to create a hit on their own with Angry Birds.
Suddenly all of Sand Hill Road was knocking at their door, but by then Rovio wasn’t so sure it needed their money. Mobilized has the inside scoop on how the Rovio investment came together.
Peter Kafka in Media on August 9, 2010 at 6:45 am PT
After Demand, the deluge. Here comes the next big brand-name public offering: Skype, which used to be owned by eBay but was sold off to an investment consortium last fall, is going back on the public market again. Unlike Demand, Skype is profitable. Like Demand, Skype would like you to look at numbers that portray it as very, very profitable.
Kara Swisher in News on May 10, 2010 at 8:30 am PT
Late last week, BoomTown sat down with Josh SIlverman, CEO of Skype, to get an update on the popular Internet telephony company.
When last we checked in with Skype, it had turned into the “Peyton Place”–look it up, kids!–of the online telecommunications arena, with lawsuit flying, venture capitalists getting slimed and a general tone of very purple drama.
Is it all behind Skype? Silverman responds, after the jump.
Kara Swisher in News on November 11, 2009 at 11:30 am PT
If spinning is an intense political skill, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is doing her very best at trying to create a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
As Om Malik reports on GigaOm, Whitman–who is trying to nab the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California–told a radio interviewer recently that “actually I think Skype will prove to be a good acquisition for eBay.”
Well, good if you mean the $2.6 billion purchase of the Interent telephony that didn’t ever work as Whitman had effusively promised in 2005. Or the ugly lawsuits over it. Or the successful shakedown by its co-founders to get a big chunk back.
You get the idea.
Kara Swisher in News on November 6, 2009 at 11:28 am PT
Silicon Valley legend and now VC Marc Andreessen was making the interview rounds after the settlement between the litigation-addled co-founders of Skype and all the various people they were suing was announced this morning.
In an interview with BoomTown, when asked about the aggressive legal tactics of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis that resulted in them finally seizing a stake in the Internet telephony giant by suing him and many other Silicon Valley players, Andreessen said:
“We did not take it personally. It’s a clean sheet of paper.”
Well, it is actually a torn, stained and very worn out piece of paper, but
bygones!
John Paczkowski in News on November 6, 2009 at 7:22 am PT
The fight for Skype has ended. After weeks of nasty legal sparring, the Internet telephony service’s founders agreed to join the investor group purchasing it from EBay and dropped the lawsuit that had threatened to bollocks the deal.
Kara Swisher in News on November 4, 2009 at 11:38 pm PT
According to several sources close to the situation, barring any unforeseen delay, a deal to settle the Skype imbroglio is likely to be announced around the time the markets open tomorrow.
While the massive agreement–which will settle a series of lawsuits waged by Skype’s co-founders–is not yet officially signed, sources said lawyers are apparently putting the finishing touches on the paperwork.
Sources also said that those co-founders–Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis–will get 10 percent of Skype back for rights to key technology they control, an option to pay $83 million for another three percent of the Internet telephony service and two seats on the 23-member board.
