Joltid and sister company Joost filed a lawsuit Thursday against former Joost CEO Michaelangelo Volpi and Volpi’s current employer, Index Ventures Management — one of the private investors who acquired a 65 percent stake in Skype from eBay on Sept. 1. Among other things, the lawsuit charges Volpi with stealing trade secrets and other proprietary information for the purpose of putting together the successful bid for Skype.
At the core of the dispute is Joltid’s Global Index Software — the peer-to-peer technology developed by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, the owners of Joltid and Joost. “Aware of its tremendous value, and on behalf of himself and his partners at Index, Volpi used his knowledge of the confidential information to form a group of investors to acquire Skype from eBay,” Joltid’s attorneys said in the brief submitted to Delaware’s chancery court.
The Stakes Are High
Joltid’s latest legal maneuver followed on the heels of the company’s filing of a copyright-infringement lawsuit Wednesday against eBay, Skype and Skype’s new private investors. Both lawsuits demonstrate that Joltid clearly aims to disrupt eBay’s sale of a 65 percent stake in Skype for $1.9 billion in cash, together with a $125 million note from the buyers.
In March, Joltid alleged in a U.K. court case that Skype breached the licensing terms governing its use of Joltid’s peer-to-peer technology. The stakes are high for all parties concerned. According to Gartner Research Director Tole Hart, Skype has 480 million users; generated quarterly revenues in the $170 million range; is profitable, according to eBay; and carried 8.4 billion minutes of paid traffic in 2008.
On the other hand, Hart said he is skeptical of Skype’s worth to its new investors. “Skype is good for primarily making international calling and in toll-call areas around the world,” Hart said. “But the…