eBay Settles Suits Over Skype; Founders To Join Investor Group

eBay (EBAY) has settled its legal dispute with the founders of Skype, clearling the way for the sale of a majority stake in the voice over IP telephony company to a group of private investors.

The company said that the investor group led by Silver Lake which has agreed to acquire a controlling interest in Skype has cut a deal with Joltid and Joost which gives Skype ownership of all previously licensed software from Joltid. As part of the agreement, Joltid, Joost and Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will joint the investor group, contributing the Joltid software and making a “significant” investment in exchange for a 14% stake in Skype.

Silver Lake and other investors, including Andreesen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will together hold 56%, while eBay will keep a 30% stake. Under terms of the sale, eBay will get $1.9 billion in cash and a note from the buyer for $125 million. The deal values Skype at $2.75 billion andis not subject to a financing condition. It should close in Q4.

The other key change in the deal: Index Ventures has dropped out of the investor group. Index is the current home of former Joost CEO Mike Volpi; he had been sued earlier this year by Zennstrom and Friis, who asserted that Volpi had breached his fiduciary duty by using confidential information in negotiating the sale of Skype by eBay to the investment group.

This morning, EBAY is up 16 cents, or 0.7%, to $23.40.