I don't know the details, but it seems they took advantage of eBay's ignorance. Screwing people over is not a good longterm strategy. I know I wouldn't want anything to do with them.
"EBay did not purchase this part of the Skype technology in 2005 because the Skype founders, and Joltid’s other shareholders, were asking for additional hundreds of millions, and stated that they intended to use the technology for other unrelated ventures, like their video startup Joost."
I tried using Joost. It was obviously using SDL, and had a kind of zooming video interface. It was so impossible to figure out the user interface, that I never got to see any videos!
it seems they took advantage of eBay's ignorance. Screwing people over is not a good longterm strategy
When one does a $2.6 billion deal, there is no ignorance regarding what is being sold. There are teams of lawyers on both sides of the table checking and re-checking every detail.
You'd think that, but the whole Novell/SCO affair proved that companies can pay $150m for something with neither side fully understanding what was sold.
It's not a good long-term strategy but in some cases, you don't need it long-term. They're most probably set for life. (or until they invest in newspapers)
You are right, but they made enough that they don't have to depend on others will to work with them again - selling your soul is a surprisingly popular option when the price gets that high.
Key fact: 14% share for Skype founders "in exchange for providing Joltid software and a significant capital investment". Would love to hear just how "significant" this capital is :)
doesn't matter anyways, closed protocols are a dead end technology. an open solution will take its place and the network effect will see that to be the eventual outcome.
VoIP is easy; it's the 100% reliable NAT traversal, supernodes, DHT, and polished UI that's hard. Unfortunately, this stuff is pretty "mucky" so few open source people want to work on it.
Also, Speak Freely is pretty much the oldest VoIP code available; you'd be better off starting with something like Telepathy/Empathy.
