eBay, Skype, IDT, and Net2Phone Settle Lawsuits

Ebay, Skype, IDT Corporation, and Net2Phone have announced that they have reached a settlement of all legal disputes between the companies, including two patent infringement lawsuits pending in an Arkansas U.S. District Court. The dispute goes all the way back to 2006 over a patent involving exchanging IP addresses to establish data links between computers. IDT got the patent when it acquired Net2Phone in 2000; it sued VoIP operator Skype, which means getting eBay involved because it had acquired Skype back in 2005.

Majority share of Skype for $1

eBay has since sold off a majority share of Skype for $1.9 Billion to a group of investment houses, after admitting it overpaid for the VoIP operator and failed to find meaningful ways to integrate it into its online auction business.