Niklas Zennstrom resigns as Skype's CEO

Niklas Zennström, who we had the pleasure of sitting down with nearly three years ago for an interview, is officially stepping down as CEO of Skype. Reportedly, he will now become the non-executive chairman of the Skype Board of Directors, and while searching for a "permanent successor," eBay's Chief Strategy Officer (Michael van Swaaij) will take the reigns as acting CEO. Additionally, "Henry Gomez, Skype's President, who remained a Senior Vice President at eBay during his two-year tenure at Skype, will return to eBay as Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs." Lastly, eBay also made known that it has paid out €375 million (around $530 million) "to settle all of its future obligations under the earn-out agreement signed with certain Skype shareholders when eBay acquired Skype in 2005."

[Thanks, Randall B.]

[David @ Oct 1st 2007 3:49PM]

I guess it'll mean that he turns all his energy into Joost and it'll be a huge success, since everything that man touches turns to gold (Kazaa, Skype).

[randy @ Oct 1st 2007 5:50PM]

Excuse me: "Gold"? I have to disagree.
1) Kazzaa is defunct
2) Skype is terminal
3) and Joost will never survive gestation unless Nik can figure out how to stream HD

[David @ Oct 1st 2007 6:21PM]

Kazaa: 270 million downloads, sold for an undisclosed fee.
Skype: Over 200 million registered users, sold for $2.6 billion.
I would say that's a pretty shiny career so far.

[jensole @ Oct 1st 2007 7:32PM]

It's not Niklas who is the genious it's the dane Janus Friis. He is the prodigy. The swede is just selling the shit and that's all he do. If it wasn't for Janus Friis, Niklas would be a bum today.

[jensole @ Oct 1st 2007 7:32PM]

It's not Niklas who is the genious it's the dane Janus Friis. He is the prodigy. The swede is just selling the stuff and that's all he do. If it wasn't for Janus Friis, Niklas would be a bum today.

[David @ Oct 1st 2007 7:49PM]

Dude! P2P-networking and voice interaction is NOT really the latest thing out there, it has been done by numerous companies before Skype and Kazaa. But they haven't succeeded (oh, some has of course, i.e. Napster). So what is it that Skype and Kazaa has (had)? -Marketing and sales stategies.

And I don't reckon he'd be a "standard bum", he does have an engineering degree.

But I'm sure Janus is a great guy too, helping bums and all.

[randy @ Oct 1st 2007 9:19PM]

200 million registrations since beta launch
60,00,000 active 'registered users'...
6,000,000 logged on at any given time...


So what does that mean? At any given time 3% of my friends are on Skype? Yay, let me go find my USB handset.

[enzo @ Oct 1st 2007 4:12PM]

pulled a Bill Gates

[G @ Oct 1st 2007 4:13PM]

At first glance he looks like Clark Kent.

[adam @ Oct 1st 2007 5:29PM]

Yeah, I was thinking a mix between Bill Gates and Christopher Reeves.

[ethana2 @ Oct 1st 2007 8:17PM]

Oh, come on, he can't look /that/ bad.

[randy @ Oct 1st 2007 5:40PM]

Skype is only valuable when it permits users to dial U.S. landlines for free. Otherwise it's useless -- nobody's ever logged on. Myself included. Plus, who's got the time to search the building for a USB handset every time they want to make a call? Dumb.

Besides, E-Bay's already got enough problems as it is. They are in crisis. Their listings seem to be over-automated and out of control — powersellers, keyword spammers, and crackpots with purposely misleading titles have taken control of the site; the moderators are overwhealmed. The site is overrun. It feels like a wasteland of unwanted garbage now, and it's nearly impossible to find anything.

[ethana2 @ Oct 1st 2007 8:19PM]

Landlines can go into a corner and die. I make hours of skype to skype calls on the average day. I will be switching to an open source alternative such as ekiga when they work the bugs out though. Skype's proprietary protocol is something I can't stand.

Conclusion- they were great, but even they are on their way out. VoIP is here to stay.

[Mike Klein @ Oct 1st 2007 8:27PM]

What's dumb is using a usb-phone for what is essentially a "mobile service".

Try a phone like the 8525 (wifi plus skype) and it works like a charm...you are where you want to be when the call/msg comes in.

[Javaflash @ Oct 1st 2007 9:58PM]

eBay was punished severely for overpaying Skype. They bet big, then lost their pants. Let's see how Google, who basically gave new meanings to overvalued M&A... multiple times, will do in a couple years.